Biggie Smalls by Tanner Pugh

      (In-text Citations needed)
       What happen to Biggie Smalls? On March 9th, 1997, Biggie Smalls was murdered in his parked car in Los Angles at the age of 24. Was it payback because he was blamed for killing Tupac, or was it someone close to him that committed the crime? Some of the conspiracy theories are listed below:

1. P Diddy killed him. (1)

2. The FBI killed him. (1)

3. He is still alive and living in a different country. (1)

Let’s take a look at the conspiracy theories above, and see which one was most likely to happen to Biggie Smalls. 

            Who was Biggie Smalls? Look up the best rapper to live, and Biggie Smalls will pop up. He was a large black male with a strong New York accent. Biggie Smalls grew up on the streets, and some said these streets raised him. This famous rapper was still tied to gangs and violence because he was a product of the environment in which he grew up. Biggie Smalls had a rough up bringing in Brooklyn, New York. He was around drugs his whole life. By the time he was a teenager, he had joined that life style. He once said that “Hustlers were my heroes.”  These hustlers were the type of people that Biggie Smalls had as role models in his years as a teenager. Biggie’s lifestyle caught up to him when he was 17 years old. At 17, he was arrested for selling crack on the streets, and he spent nine months in prison for this crime. People said the only thing that saved him from this lifestyle was music. The Notorious B.I.G was definitely a product of his environment. In the music industry, especially the rap industry, there was always a “beef, “or rivalry between people. Biggie Smalls was a part of one of the biggest rivalries in the music industry. This rivalry was considered the east coast vs. the west coast, which was really Biggie vs. Tupac. Things exploded when Tupac was shot five times in a recording studio in Brooklyn, and Biggie Smalls and his crew were considered the suspects. Everything pointed to Biggie Smalls setting up Tupac to get shot in that studio. Everyone believed that Biggie Smalls was trying to take out his only real competition at the time. Then, Tupac dropped his diss track called “Who Shot Ya”, and that put more conflict on Biggie Smalls to respond to that record. However, he never did. The rivalry with Tupac was one of the biggest external conflicts Biggie Smalls had in his life, and it would last until the day he died.

            What really happened to Biggie Smalls? Several conspiracy theories have developed explaining his death. The first conspiracy theory was that Biggie was killed by P Diddy.  Most people agreed with this theory for two important reasons. The first reason was people believed that P Diddy thought his record sales would increase. The other reason was that many believed he killed Biggie, then he used the east and west coast rivalry to cover the crime. One conspiracy theorist quoted that “Conspiracy theorist believe that Diddy saw how much rap mogul Suge Knight profited from album sales after the death of Tupac Shakur and saw an opportunity to do the same.” I agreed with this first theory because many people would do anything for money even if it meant killing a good friend. As the quote stated, someone had already benefited from the death of a rapper, so I believe P Diddy took advantage of this situation. After Biggie Small’s death, P Diddy gained a huge wave of fame. He released his first commercial album, and that album was on top of the billboard 200 charts (4). This theory was the most believable because people would do anything to grow their wealth. Another reason why people think P Diddy killed Biggie Smalls was because he grew to dislike Biggie Smalls. He even used the east/west coast feud to cover it up. A quote about this theory stated, “Smalls had been embroiled in the east coast/west coast rap feud for months, and Diddy leaped at the chance to disguise himself behind smoke and mirrors, the theorist believe.” (3)  I felt this one was not as believable because Biggie Smalls and P Diddy were known to be great friends. I, personally, didn’t think P Diddy would have just killed him for no apparent reason.

            Another theory about the death of Biggie Smalls was that the FBI killed Biggie Smalls. The main reason this theory surfaced and gained popularity was because of the book The FBI War on Tupac and Black Leaders (2). This book talked about how the FBI planned hits to take out influential black leaders. The author of the book used interviews, court recordings, and surveillance footage to prove their facts on how the FBI killed Biggie Smalls and other influential black leaders. Also, people believed that the FBI worked with the south Compton Crips to kill Biggie Smalls. Then, they covered up the crime, so no one would expect the FBI to be the ones who committed this crime. Conspiracy theorists also believed that the FBI worked with LAPD to kill Biggie Smalls. At the time LAPD was investigating this case, a lot of shady stuff was going on, and it seemed like they were trying to cover something up. The conspiracy theory that the FBI killed Biggie Smalls was one I found to be the least believable. Why would the police and FBI go through all of this trouble just to kill one man?  I definitely believed this was a false theory.

            The next conspiracy theory was that Biggie Smalls was still alive, and he was living in New Zealand (4). This theory came to life when someone in PBS reported Biggie was living in New Zealand. A quote about this theory was “Prominent rapper Tupac has been found alive and well in a small resort in New Zealand, locals report. The small town - unnamed due to security risks - allegedly housed Tupac and Biggie Smalls (another rapper) for several years. One local, David File, who recently passed away, leaving evidence and reports of Tupac's visit in a diary, which he requested be shipped to his family in the United States.” This PBS post received lots of scrutiny and was later taken off their website. In my opinion, this theory was the least believable because there were many pictures showing the killing of Biggie Smalls in Los Angeles that night. . This theory had been discredited by most conspiracy theorists.  This conspiracy theory was the one that most people do not believe because of the creditability of the sources that reported it (4).

            Biggie Smalls was one of the best hip hop artist of all time, and he was killed too early in life. There were three major conspiracy theories about the death of Biggie Smalls.

  1. P Diddy killed him. (1)

 2. The FBI killed him. (1)

 3. He is still alive and living in a different country. (1)

No one has been convicted of killing Biggie Smalls. Many conspiracy theories exist about this murder. However, most people believe that his good friend, P Diddy, killed him. This is the theory I support and feel is the most believable.

Citations

1(s) "Biggie Smalls." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

2(P) Http://www.howstuffworks.com/hsw-contact.htm. "The Biggie Smalls Conspiracy." Stuff They Don't Want You to Know. N.p., 08 Apr. 2011. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.

3(S) Nathan-francis. "Was Biggie Smalls Murdered By Sean Combs? Conspiracy Theories Abound On Anniversary Of Notorious B.I.G.'s Death." The Inquisitr News. N.p., 28 Nov. 2016. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.

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4(S) "WHO SHOT YA, BIG POPPA?: On the 19th Anniversary of Biggie's Death, a Look at Some of the Craziest Conspiracies Surrounding His Murder." N.p., n.d. Web.