Biggie and 2Pac ‘were two of the most influential figures in hip-hop, and you’re not finding these people’s murderers?’ Junior M.A.F.I.A. member fumes.
By Jayson Rodriguez, with additional reporting by Sway Calloway

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Notorious B.I.G.


Photo: Bad Boy

One week ago, seven days before what would have been the Notorious B.I.G.’s 38th birthday (May 21), former Los Angeles police officer David Mack, who many allege helped orchestrate the hit that killed one of hip-hop’s most beloved MCs, was released from prison.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ records, Mack became a free man on May 14.

Mack was known for his ties to Death Row Records and the Bloods gang; a detective investigating the Biggie murder case also discovered Mack owned a car similar to the one used on the hit against the Brooklyn MC, though police did not follow the lead.

Many friends, family members and fans of Biggie are still flabbergasted at what they believe is a lack of effort in seeking justice for the slain rap superstar.

“I’m definitely upset about it,” Lil’ Cease told MTV News this week. “I think it’s something they should look into, especially when you see all these other things going on and you see how they pursue other cases. It just seems like when it came to Biggie, it was, ‘Oh, another rapper, another hoodlum, another gangster is dead.’ Same thing with 2Pac. These were two of the most influential figures in hip-hop, and you’re not finding these people’s murderers? Or not even making a real attempt to? It upsets you, ’cause they’re treating them like nobodies but they had a big influence in the game and people look up to them. No matter what they rap about or what they’d been through, they were still human beings at the time.”

A Los Angeles Police Department representative told MTV News the case is still ongoing, but a spokesperson had no comment on the investigation.

Retired LAPD detective Russell Poole told MTV News in March that he continues to believe that Mack, other rogue officers including Rafael Perez, and former Death Row Records head Suge Knight conspired together to kill the Notorious B.I.G.

Poole said the 2005 mistrial due to police withholding evidence (the same judge later declared another mistrial, accusing Biggie’s family of failing to disclose information they obtained) and subsequent shelving of the trial has made it increasingly difficult for the murderer to be found.

At press time, the case still has yet to receive a new date.

“Unless somebody on the inside fingers Suge Knight and these officers that I believe are involved, it’s gonna be very, very hard for them to actually proceed with a criminal court case, from a logical standpoint,” Poole told MTV News. “The fact of the matter is, the evidence was there. I’ve had less evidence on cases where I’ve sent people to prison for the rest of their lives. This case had a lot of evidence to it. Start with the officers that were working off-duty for Death Row Records, they were getting paid well. That occupation, working for Death Row Records, superseded them working for LAPD as sworn, honest, police officers. And nobody has really put any emphasis on that, and that’s the real story. Nobody ever investigated those officers way back then, when they were working for corrupt gangsters that were on parole and were armed. Nobody has done any real in depth investigation on that.”

Poole said it was an unwritten rule that police were not allowed to work in other capacities, such as the roles many secured within Death Row’s organization.

Mack and Perez, who has since changed his name to Ray Lopez, were later convicted and sentenced to prison for crimes unrelated to the Notorious B.I.G. shooting. Both men are now free after serving out their times.A third man, Amir Muhammad, who Poole and others alleged was the shooter, has never been questioned by police.

Knight was recently arrested by police in California and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, but the former mogul (his company, Death Row Records, was auctioned off) has never been connected by police to the Biggie case.

On Friday (May 21), more than 13 years since his killing, Biggie’s birthday is still being celebrated. His Junior M.A.F.I.A. cohort Lil’ Cease spoke to MTV News this week and explained how he thought Big would recognize his birthday this year if he were alive.

“Today, he’d probably just be with the family,” Cease said. “We had our experience on the road: performing, doing shows, big parties. He definitely would have had a big party. A celebrity affair. But he also would have done something private with the M.A.F.I.A., close friends, wife. He kept it together with everybody he dealt with, and I’m sure they would have all came out and shown their love for Big and kept everything else under the carpet, whatever it was. Big had that type of heart, that everyone would wanna come out and show their love and spend that day with him.”

What are some of your favorite Biggie memories? Let us know in the comments.

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Ralph McDaniels and J.Period blend Biggie’s songs with new beats and visuals on the mixtape DVD, in Mixtape Daily.
By Shaheem Reid

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Notorious B.I.G.


Photo: Getty Images

Don’t Sleep: Necessary Notables

Mixtape DVD: “March 9: Video Remix Collection”

Headliners: The Notorious B.I.G., Ralph McDaniels and J.Period

Key Cameos: No guest stars, but you have to check for the blends. “Flava in Ya Ear” over the track from Jay-Z’s “P.S.A.” “Hypnotize” over the track from Eric B and Rakim’s “Paid in Full.” “One More Chance” over the instrumental from Mary Jane Girls’ “All Night Long” and the Gap Band’s “Outstanding.”

Essential Info: Ralph McDaniels is hip-hop. He’s been documenting the culture since the beginning. In the early ’80s, McDaniels, then a college student, would tape footage of hip-hop godfathers like Grand Master Flash and Melle Mel, not because he had an outlet to put it on, but because he knew in his heart that the culture had to be recorded. Thirty years later, McDaniels can be considered an architect himself, with his New York-based video program “Video Music Box” becoming a staple in rap. It was the place where you could find all videos from new artists as well as the stars every day after school. Jay-Z, Wu-Tang Clan, BBD, KRS-One and countless others not only sent their videos in, they gave McDaniels interviews at a time when we didn’t see much hip-hop on TV.

One of McDaniels’ favorite subjects was the Notorious B.I.G. Uncle Ralph described Biggie as being very serious in the booth but a jokester that could rival the Kings of Comedy when he wasn’t working. McDaniels also remembers Biggie as a “student of the game.”

“I have footage of him at a Big Daddy Kane concert, and he was just in the crowd,” McDaniels told Mixtape Daily. “He was a student of the game. He knew Kane was an MC from Brooklyn that came early. That told me a lot. He wasn’t anybody yet; he was just a cat trying to get on. To be around a guy like that, hilarious. I would want to be a Junior M.A.F.I.A. member just to be down with that cat there.”

McDaniels recently teamed with J.Period to salute Big Poppa with a collection of remix videos called “March 9: Video Remix Collection.”

“This thing was kinda the next evolution of the March 9th remix project I started on the 10th anniversary of Big passing with my man G. Brown,” Period explained. “I been speaking to Ralph for a minute — I love what he does; he likes what I do with the mixtapes — about finding a way to collabo. This seems like the best first step: Find somebody like Big, take the remixes and see what happens. When you set it to video, it takes it to life in a whole new way.”

“I always like looking for something new, something different,” McDaniels said. “I was familiar with J.Period’s original CD mixtape. I was like, ‘This is kinda dope.’ That’s when we started talking about it. So I’ll take the visuals. Sometimes, the visuals don’t match, because there might be edits and all kinds of things like that involved. I have to find something that fits for that particular scene. I have to use my imagination and think about the fans as well. What would they like to see? Because I’m a music-video person, I live for the visuals. … We try to input some of these things in to the video mixes. Biggie don’t have a lot of videos he did, maybe only like five or six videos he was in. So we had to get creative. Thankfully, the ones we put out, they were ones he had videos for. But there’s some songs like ‘Party and Bullsh–’ that there were no videos for. But there’s footage out there of him performing. That’s the creative stuff we had to work on fitting it together.”

For other artists featured in Mixtape Daily, check out Mixtape Daily Headlines.

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‘We did it again, Brooklyn,’ Jay says in reference to Biggie’s Source Awards speeches.
By Shaheem Reid

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Jay-Z and Notorious B.I.G.


Photo: Roc-A-Fella

Leave it to Jay-Z. On Thursday, Hov was in Brooklyn at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Barclays Center, the future home of the New Jersey Nets, the NBA team he co-owns. When it was Jay’s time to speak, not only did he tell the crowd — which included Beyoncé, the Reverend Al Sharpton and the mayor and governor of New York — about the realizations of his own dreams, but Jigga also shouted out the other half of “Brooklyn’s Finest.”

“What I stand here and represent is hope for Brooklyn, New York City. I’m a son of Brooklyn, I’m from Marcy projects,” Jay said. “I think about growing up in Brooklyn in the Marcy projects and shooting jump shots, thinking I can make it to the NBA. Now I stand here as an owner of a team that’s coming back to Brooklyn. The pride in that, and bringing that dream so much closer for people, brings me so much pride I get a little nervous about it. But I’m very happy, very excited about this day. And we did it again, Brooklyn — shout-out to [Notorious] B.I.G.”

The tail end of Jay’s speech hearkened back to the 1995 Source Awards, where Biggie shouted out Brooklyn during his multiple acceptance speeches. After Jodeci presented him with Album of the Year, Big — wearing a white towel on his head — and a horde of others came onstage to address the crowd.

“I wanna give mad love to my daughter, my moms, my manager, Gucci, my wife,” he said. “We did it, Brooklyn. We did it. All them sh–. [I won] all of them [awards]. One love to all y’all mutha—-as.”

The Notorious B.I.G. was gunned down in Los Angeles 13 years ago Tuesday.

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Thirteen years after B.I.G.’s death, we look back on his life as hip-hop’s brightest star.

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Notorious B.I.G.


Photo: MTV News

Tuesday (March 9) is a day not to mourn, but to celebrate the life and legacy of one of music’s most gifted artists: the Notorious B.I.G.

His voice, his flow, his rhymes, his swag — whatever you wanted, B.I.G. had it to offer. He could tell stories, battle it out, ignite the party or kick game to the ladies. Christopher Wallace was made for rap.

We didn’t get much time with Biggie. He put out his first album in 1994, and he died in early 1997 before the release of his second LP (Life After Death). Due to his work ethic, however, we have a catalog of timeless music that is often imitated, never duplicated. As mesmerizing as a Biggie song was, part of his allure as an artist was his charming personality. He’s a rare breed that could capture the wit and magnetism in his offstage persona and bring it to his music.

Here, we are taking you back into our vaults to relive Biggie’s best MTV interviews. He was candid and thoughtful as he spoke about the inspiration for his music, his stage performance and much more.

On Tuesday night, Diddy is going to celebrate the life of his friend and marquee artist at Brooklyn club the Lab.

“We’re trying to make March 9th a national hip-hop holiday,” Diddy told MTV News last week. “It already is, on the low. MTV is going to have a big special. We’re doing a party. I’m going to Brooklyn. It’s gonna be the first time I’m throwing a party in Brooklyn. I’m from Harlem. Everybody in Harlem knows you don’t usually go over the bridge to Brooklyn. It’s a big, big deal. Me being such a Harlemite, I’m going over there to pay respect to my man. It’s gonna be a big party in Brooklyn with Mister Cee. It’s a big day. It’s a day to celebrate his life. It’s a day to celebrate the life of the man. We done did the movie, the records. It’s something that, I guess, as a label we’re obsessed with: making sure people don’t forget about this man in a positive way. March 9 is Biggie Day. … Bump Biggie all day, feel good and positive.”

On Tuesday, MTV Jams will be playing videos by B.I.G. and a slew of other fallen musical soldiers, such as Michael Jackson, Tupac Shakur, Aaliyah, Big Pun, the Lost Boyz and their deceased member Freaky Tah and Camoflauge. This week’s “Sucker Free Sunday” on MTV2 is running a special tribute to Biggie, hosted by Diddy.

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Thirteen years after his death, we check in on the ongoing investigation.
By Jayson Rodriguez

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Notorious B.I.G.


Photo: Courtesy of VIBE

Thirteen years ago Tuesday (March 9), hip-hop lost one of its most beloved, charismatic and talented MCs to ever put rhymes to a beat.

The Notorious B.I.G. was senselessly gunned down in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997, as he left a Soul Train Music Awards afterparty. To date, the assailants remain at large.

Investigations into the murder of the Brooklyn rapper are ongoing, and a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Biggie’s mother, Voletta Wallace, and others against the city of Los Angeles and other defendants is also pending.

	Remembering The Notorious B.I.G.

The ongoing quest to punish the people behind Biggie’s death, however, continues to leave those involved frustrated.

Ms. Wallace declined to comment on the status of her lawsuit but issued a brief statement to MTV News: “I thank you for the opportunity to touch [my son's] fans and for the network’s continued support of me and the family, but it’s been 13 years, I miss my son, his children miss their father, and the murderer is still at large.”

Theories abound about the murder of the iconic rapper, which occurred only a short distance from the Petersen Automotive Museum where Biggie, Diddy and their entourage were celebrating just moments before. According to author Randall Sullivan’s book “LAbyrinth,” associates of Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight, who was embroiled in a feud with Diddy’s Bad Boy Records, conspired to kill Biggie. The book, based on extensive research conducted by Sullivan and interviews the writer held with former Los Angeles Police Department detective Russell Poole, an investigator into Biggie’s murder, those involved in the hit on Biggie were dirty cops.

“They say some cops become gangbangers; well, these guys were essentially gangbangers who became cops,” Poole told MTV News.

Rafael Perez and David Mack, Poole alleged, were just two of the many LAPD officers who were on the payroll of Death Row Records. According to Poole, the officers’ primary sense of duty and allegiance to the police force was tainted by their involvement with Death Row. The two eventually went to prison but on charges unrelated to the investigation into the Notorious B.I.G. murder.

Poole maintains there were clues that pointed to each man that should have been looked into further. “I’ve put away guys for life with less evidence [than I had on Perez and Mack],” Poole said.

Through a complex web of deceit intended to shield the LAPD from a controversial scandal, Poole said, members of the force, including the chief at the time, suppressed efforts to look into policemen who were connected to Suge Knight and Death Row.

Poole eventually resigned in protest, amid his frustrations that the investigation was being sabotaged.

A representative for the LAPD declined to comment when contacted by MTV News about the status of the rapper’s murder investigation. At one point, the FBI picked up the investigation but later announced it had stopped its pursuit. A representative for the FBI also declined to comment when contacted by MTV News.

Ms. Wallace’s wrongful-death lawsuit remains open. The case was brought to trial at one point, but days later it was declared a mistrial after it was discovered the detective who took over as lead investigator in Biggie’s murder hid evidence. The mistrial was announced July 7, 2005, however, no further advancements have been made since in pushing the case to trial again.

Poole alleged that police initially sought to slow down the investigation into Biggie’s murder in order to keep the lid on possible LAPD involvement in the crime. Now, he said, the new administration and Los Angeles’ power players are striving to keep the truth buried for fear that civil-lawsuit payouts could bankrupt the economically challenged city. In any event, the former detective said he’s ready to be a witness in Ms. Wallace’s case and will testify whenever he is called upon.

For now, Poole waits, haunted by a puzzling case in which he seems to have too many pieces gathered to not complete the full picture.

“I want this thing solved before I die,” he said. “Every detective has a case that they think about each and every day, and this is the case right there. This is the case I think about every single day before I go to bed. It never goes away. It’ll haunt me for the rest of my life. The day it’s solved, I’ll be able to relax.”

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