Cold case murder of Biggie Smalls starts to heat up again

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share via Email
• Copy Link

  Link Copied

The unsolved murders of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. are hip-hop’s most infamous cold cases.

Information on the murders dried up since they occurred over 14 years ago. Both cases occurred at busy intersections in major cities, and were six months a part. There have been documentaries, conspiracy theories, endless commentary and speculation as to what happened and most notably who was responsible since that time.

A report released by CNN stated that the investigation into the death of Biggie Smalls is heating up thanks to new, undisclosed information. This news has everyone once again intrigued at the notion of finding justice for one of the genre’s iconic figures.

The task force, made up of the Los Angeles Police Department, L.A. County District Attorney’s Office and the FBI, is actively pursuing leads in the case. Even with the prospect of new information available, old sentiments about the case have crept up.

Was Biggie’s death a simple case of retaliation? There are the people who can’t be convinced that Death Row Records founder Suge Knight had nothing to do with either murder, while others insist that any investigation should center on Knight’s still ominous presence in the case. The court of public opinion hasn’t been kind to Knight since the murders, but he doesn’t seem to be swayed by it.

Will this process bring closure to Voletta Wallace, Biggie’s mother? If justice is found of course—but the hip-hop community hasn’t been fair to her in many ways. She’s never had ample opportunity to make peace with her son’s death because she’s been constantly peeling the scab for the last 13 years answer questions about his murder, many of which, don’t have real answers. His widow, Faith Evans, has voiced her skepticism that the case will ever be solved by the judicial system.

A statement released by the attorney for Voletta Wallace and Biggie’s estate said the family was “greatly pleased with any advancement” in the case and would not do anything to interfere with the investigation, according to TMZ.

Still, there are some who are completely unsympathetic towards both rappers’ demise believing they both got the sharp edge of a dangerous they played.

But why do we care so much? Other figures in the genre have been gunned down without the satisfaction of suspects except for Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G.

What’s craziest about the lack of information in both cases is that investigators are able to recreate both incidents with extreme accuracy, but they just can’t lock down the people involved. Glaring holes abound, but in Biggie’s case in particular, there’s been one voice that’s consistently linked both murders in a web of police corruption.

Russell Poole is a retired LAPD detective who has long said he believes Suge Knight ordered a hit and insisted that his own LAPD colleagues worked against him to cover up their own involvement and avoid an even larger scandal, going as far as forcing him to retire because he was getting “too close to the truth”.

All parties accused have repeatedly denied involvement in the murder.

The impact of fresh pressure from mainstream news outlets has to change the dynamic of the investigation, like having the likes of CNN and TMZ breathing down your neck instead of popular hip-hop publications, who may be more in tune with the case but don’t pack the same cache nationally.

Time has been rightfully unkind to the state of hip-hop during the time of Biggie’s and Tupac’s deaths, painting an image of juvenile posturing and overflowing machismo that many look back on with a cringe, admitting they were just swept up in the East Coast-West Coast spat. A narrative that was driven not only by records coming from Bad Boy and Death Row but by the media outlets in print and radio that covered them and constantly added fuel to the fire.

Thankfully, Biggie’s family has been careful not to pimp his image for commercials, leaving the lasting image of him to his fans and the hip hop community the genius of his two albums and not the awkwardness of him pitching products he wasn’t alive to see created.

There was some controversy behind 2009 biopic, Notorious, which left out details of the rapper’s life and depicted some key figures unflatteringly.

The real question remains, if we do get names and justice out of the new information in this case, then what? Do we make it a trend to try and seek out similar results in the cases of other fallen MCs? A hip-hop version of Unsolved Mysteries would surely have an audience.

If B.I.G.’s murderers are brought to justice, the closure many want is sure to be met with the anticlimactic knowledge of it no longer being this great and timeless conspiracy theory. Yet, that knowledge is what B.I.G.’s fans, and most importantly, his family, deserves.