Will 'snitching' reveal the killers of Biggie and Tupac?

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It was just a few weeks ago that the hip-hop community was rocked by the shocking revelation of one Dexter Isaac, who admitted to the 1994 robbery and shooting of rap icon Tupac Shakur at the direction of by James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond. This incident set off the infamous “East Coast vs. West Coast” rap feud that eventually resulted in Shakur’s untimely death. The timing of this admission, only a day before what would have been Shakur’s 40th birthday, only added to the drama.

Now, less than a month later, another man is claiming intimate knowledge and an accessory role in the shooting death of Shakur’s biggest rival, The Notorious B.I.G. According to an exclusive report from leading Hip-Hop news site HipHopDX.com, Clayton Hill, a former Nation of Islam member and currently incarcerated federal felon, “met with Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy DePodesta and two agents with the F.B.I.’s Domestic Terrorism Unit and revealed that in May of 1997, while acting under orders as an official with Muhammad Mosque #15 in Atlanta, Georgia, he took possession of a semi-automatic handgun from a fellow N.O.I. member from Los Angeles, California who introduced himself as Dawoud Muhammad.”

Click here to view a Grio slideshow of rappers who were gone too soon

Hill is currently serving a prison sentence in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago after being convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States and identity theft. He has written a book, Diary of an Ex-Terrorist, in which he provides quotes from Dawoud bragging about being paid “twenty five g’s” (which would be $25,000) for killing The Notorious B.I.G.

The story Hill tells is quite sensational, and differs from that of Isaac’s in that it directly identifies the person allegedly responsible for the actual killing of the slain rapper. In both instances two men who are currently incarcerated and have nothing further to lose have come forward after more than a decade of silence on two of the most high profile shootings in the world of recorded music. Their sudden and unanticipated confessions raise just as many questions as they answer, the main one among them: will snitching finally bring closure?

In January, the FBI revealed they had received new information that reinvigorated their investigation into B.I.G.’s death. At the time they were not forthcoming with what that new information was, but it is likely that which was provided by Hill in during his meeting with the Assistant U.S. Attorney.

While Hill will probably not serve as a witness in any potential trial, given his criminal record and his inability to identify Dawoud in a photograph, his cooperation with law enforcement revitalized a case that, for all intents and purposes, many in the hip-hop community believed would never be solved. After the lead detective assigned to the case, Russell Poole implicated fellow LAPD officer David Mack and his friend Amir Muhammad (who may have gone by the name Dawoud, according to Hill’s version of the story) was forced into retirement, all hope seemed lost. If it weren’t for Hill’s “snitching” the FBI could have effectively closed their investigation.

Snitching is the ultimate sin among criminal conspirators and hip-hop has taken that attitude to new levels, where anyone who says anything to law enforcement of any kind is deemed a snitch and essentially marked for death. It was just a half a decade ago that a massive “stop snitching” movement captured the imaginations of hip-hop artists and fans alike, and was subsequently parodied in an episode of the Cartoon Network series The Boondocks.

Harlem born rapper Cam’Ron, of Roc-a-Fella and Dipset fame, famously appeared on CBS’ 60 Minutes to defend his no snitching credo, telling Anderson Cooper that even if he knew who was responsible for shooting him in the arms in 2005 or if a serial killer lived in his neighborhood, he still wouldn’t talk to the police.

And now, snitching may prove to be the only way to finally solve the murders of hip-hop’s biggest martyrs (for lack of a better word). This presents an interesting conundrum to a culture that has grown to value the code of not snitching almost as much as the James Brown records it used to create breakbeats. While talking to police may be a sin, might it be forgiven if the B.I.G. and Tupac’s killers are found and brought to justice? We may soon find out.