Justice For Biggie?

More than a decade after his murder, the LA police may finally be zeroing in on who killed Biggie Smalls according to CNN. The seminal rapper was shot to death in his car while driving in  the Mid-Wilshire area of LA; there were police cover-ups, witness hush-ups and plenty of hanky panky in the investigation that followed.

There’s no word on where the investigation is focusing, but it’s popularly believed that Suge Knight, head of the Death Row Records label, ordered the hit from behind bars. That’s been the theory that’s been gaining the most traction over the years. Whatever the case the reality is that the LAPD totally fucked things up the first time (with plenty of help from the rap community - supposedly Sean Combs ordered all of his Bad Boy employees to clam up, and he did the same); a lawsuit filed by Biggie’s family against the LAPD ended up a mistrial, but not until the judge overseeing it expressed serious concerns that the LAPD was witholding evidence.

The Notorious BIG murder may have been tied up in the Ramparts Scandal; in the 1990s LA’s anti-gang force was riddled with serious corruption, and one of the dirty cops at the center of that scandal had ties to Death Row Records; Death Row in turn was associated with the Bloods gang. It was a complete clusterfuck, and one of the most serious dirty cop scandals in recent history.

Just 15 days after his death Notorious BIG’s second album, prophetically titled Life After Death, was released. It was packed with classics, and showed amazing promise - what could have happened if Christopher Wallace had lived?