The Notorious B.I.G. dies

Why it matters

The Notorious B.I.G. was shot in a drive-by in Los Angeles on the night of March 9, 1997, while leaving a Vibe magazine after-party at the Petersen Automotive Museum. He was a passenger in a GMC Suburban. The shooter pulled up in a Chevy Impala SS at a stoplight and fired into the passenger window. Biggie was hit four times. He died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center within the hour. He was 24. The case has never been solved. The LAPD investigation has been periodically reopened, most recently in 2022, but no arrests have ever been made. The Russell Poole theory implicating LAPD officers connected to Death Row Records is one of several still actively discussed. What is settled is that Biggie's death, six months after Tupac's, ended the East/West conflict in the bleakest possible way: with both principals dead, no resolution, both labels eventually collapsing under the weight of what had happened. The catalog Biggie left behind (Ready to Die and the posthumous Life After Death) is the foundation of New York rap from 1994 forward. He was 24. He had been famous for thirty months. You can hear, on the music, how much was about to come.