Hip-hop fans abuzz over killer theory

By CRAIG SEYMOUR
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer

Atlanta's hip-hop community was buzzing Friday after an investigative report in the Los Angeles Times charged that rapper Notorious B.I.G. put out a $1 million hit on rap superstar Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas six years ago.

Fans fervently debated the story on the radio. Hot 107.9's Ryan Cameron devoted the bulk of his morning show to the topic. "It went on for hours," Cameron said. "A lot of listeners don't believe it."

Shakur's mother, former Black Panther Afeni Shakur, has a house in Stone Mountain. And the Notorious B.I.G.'s widow, R&B singer Faith Evans, and their son, Christoher Jr., live in Alpharetta.

Reaction was swift from the family of B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace and who also was known as Biggie Smalls. A statement from the family called the article "patently false," adding that it was considering a lawsuit against the Times.

In the statement, Evans was quoted as saying, "There is no truth to anything said in this article about myself and my late, beloved husband. Our family continues to grieve over these and other lies perpetrated by irresponsible parties."

Shakur's aunt, Gloria Cox, also an area resident, said only, "We [the Shakur family] have a lot of compassion for Biggie's mom."

Shakur was fatally wounded in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas on Sept. 7, 1996. Wallace was shot six months later in Los Angeles.

In the six years since, the killings -- both still unsolved -- have become the hip-hop world's equivalent of the Kennedy assassination, spawning a host of books, articles, TV shows and films, each offering different theories on the circumstances that took down these larger-than-life stars.

The Los Angeles Times account, based on a yearlong investigation by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Chuck Philips, provided many new twists. Philips wrote that Wallace was in Las Vegas that night. Further, Philips wrote, Wallace had ordered a $1 million hit on Shakur that evening -- an order that was carried out just off the glittering Strip.

Philips also wrote that Wallace provided the murder weapon, wanting "the satisfaction of knowing the fatal bullet came from his gun."

Philips claims that the perpetrators were members of a Los Angeles gang known as the Southside Crips and that the person who shot Shakur was a Crips member named Orlando Anderson, now dead.

This account is based on a yearong investigation of police affidavits, court documents, and numerous interviews. Among those the reporter talked to are unidentified members of the Crips.

The Times story goes against previous accounts that have largely portrayed Wallace as a martyr in an inflammatory East Coast/West Coast rap feud. This is largely the view espoused in Randall Sullivan's exhaustive investigation of the case, "Labyrinth: A Detective Investigates the Murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, the Implication of Death Row Records' Suge Knight, and the Origins of the Los Angeles Police Scandal." There is also a new documentary, Nick Broomfield's "Biggie & Tupac," which opens in Atlanta next month.

The sticking point for most Wallace supporters is the allegation that the rapper was in Las Vegas on the night Shakur was shot. They say that it would have been nearly impossible for a star like Wallace to have hidden out at the bustling MGM Grand without anyone noticing. "It's's not like Mini-Me was walking around," Cameron says. "The guy was over 300-plus pounds and famous."

Those close to Wallace deny that he was in Vegas. "Biggie was in Jersey watching the fight," says Mark Pitts, Wallace's manager at the time. "Big was at the crib," echoed Lil' Cease, one of Wallace's closest friends, on the Web site AllHipHop.com.

Others who have covered the case say the story doesn't ring true. "The facts, as I have researched them, are not presented in their entirety here," said filmmaker Broomfield.

"Labyrinth" author Sullivan also questions the story. "Everything in the story has appeared multiple times except that small section that says the Notorious B.I.G. provided the gun. That seems to come entirely from unnamed alleged members of the Crips gang.

"I hope people are going to ask, 'Who set [Philips] up with these Crips and why would they agree to confess to this murder?' What would be their motive?"

Philips did not return a call for comment. But on MTV's Web site, he says he initially didn't believe Wallace was involved in Shakur's death. "The revelation of Biggie was shocking to me," Philips said. "When this came up, I was just ... 'I don't believe it.' So I went about trying to disprove it in various ways with various sources and that's not what happened. What I ended up writing is what happened."

The Times report is the latest chapter in an odd, murderous tale. "It's one of these mythical stories," says Mark Ford, co-executive producer of VH-1's "Behind the Music" special on Wallace. "There is something so powerful about the clashing of two former friends and what conspires to pull them apart."

And six years after their deaths, the stories continue. More Information