Big L dies

Why it matters

The Harlem block where Big L was killed (West 139th between Lenox and Seventh) is a block he had grown up on, written about, recorded around, and stayed close to his entire life. He could have moved out by 1999. He had a record deal that was about to close with Roc-A-Fella. He had options. He stayed in Harlem. That is the part you have to know about Big L. He was a writer who loved the specifics of the neighborhood he was from. The bars on Lifestylez ov da Poor and Dangerous (1995) are dense with names of corners, dealers, friends, deli-owners. The whole D.I.T.C. crew (Diggin' in the Crates: Diamond D, Lord Finesse, Showbiz, A.G., Buckwild, Fat Joe) lived inside this specific geographic web of the upper-Manhattan rap scene. Then on a Monday night in February 1999, somebody walked up to L on the block he was from and shot him nine times. The shooter walked away. The case has never been solved. You can read the bars he left behind. You cannot ask him about them.