The late Biggie Smalls was and still is a true icon and is considered one of the best MCs ever to touch a microphone. The young Brooklyn emcee was a prodigy child whose talent was cultivated by Diddy (formerly known as Puff Daddy). Recognised by the music mogul as a star in the making, Biggie signed with Bad Boy due to his appearance in the ‘Unsigned Hype’ column of The Source magazine. However, Biggie’s career was not a simple or smooth one.
If there’s one thing that marks the New York artist’s career, it is undoubtedly the ugly East Coast versus West Coast war of the 1990s. Sparked by a simple misunderstanding, the battle involved many people. However, some involved were roped in involuntarily merely by association.
The most common narrative is that it was a war involving these two regions when, in fact, it wasn’t. The reality is far simpler. It was a conflict between two labels. On the one hand, it was Death Row Records, the Los Angeles-located home of Tupac Shakur. Then on the other, it was Bad Boy Entertainment, the New York-based label that made Biggie Smalls. The pseudo-war was all sparked by a shooting in New York’s Quad Studios lobby, where Tupac exited after a recording session. The Death Row rapper claimed that he saw an affiliate of Biggie Smalls while getting shot and was insistent the Brooklyn native (real name Christopher Wallace) was behind the attack.
For two years after the incident in 1994, Shakur continuously taunted Wallace on records. However, it was only to his detriment as he ended up getting shot in a drive-by shooting in 1996. During an appearance on the television programme Rap City in 1997, the ‘Juicy’ rapper acknowledged how “powerful” the two were as individuals. However, that didn’t do much to change perceptions of him on the West Coast as he was shot in LA later that year.
Many documentaries have been made about the investigations that followed the two rappers’ deaths, as people are interested in how they were murdered and who carried out the murders. However, some of the unofficial insider details that have emerged reveal a much more sinister side to the murders, especially with regard to Biggie.
A mere six months after the untimely death of Tupac, Biggie suffered the same fate. There was a lot of speculation following the incident as to who shot Biggie. However, according to retired FBI agent Phil Carson, evidence was abundant, all pointing to one person. Speaking with the New York Post in 2021, Carson disclosed, “All the evidence points to Amir Muhammad. He’s the one who pulled the trigger.”
The retired detective continued, “There were plenty of others who helped orchestrate it [and] allowed him to pull the trigger.” Carson labelled the Biggie Smalls case as “the biggest miscarriage of justice [during his] 20-year career at the FBI.” The former FBI agent even alleged the California city’s police department was involved, divulging, “I had evidence that LAPD officers were involved, and I was shut down by the LAPD and city attorneys inside Los Angeles.”
Going even further, Carson boldly stated, “Suge Knight financed the murder! Suge was ticked off that his cash cow Tupac was murdered. Suge had an accountant that was part of Death Row Records who helped do the financial side of things to pay for the murders.” You can see Carson explaining the fine details of the case to AllHipHop.com in the video below.
