Biggie Smalls: How did The Notorious BIG die?

In this blog post, we take you through the events that led to The Notorious B.I.G. being shot and killed at 24 years old. Biggie was a revered hip-hop artist and face of East Coast gangsta rap. For hip-hop heads of the 1990s, it comes as no surprise. As the saying goes, “The greatest rapper of all time died on March 9.” Anything else is just blasphemy.

Early Life of Crime

Biggie dropped out of high school at the age of seventeen and was arrested in 1989 for weapon charges (for carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm). He was arrested again a year later on drug charges and spent nine months in jail before he made bail. This was the longest time the rapper spent in jail. Other arrests were for selling drugs, robbery and assaulting two fans who wanted autographs.

Even after being signed and releasing his debut album Ready To Die, the 22-year old former drug dealer, had a sick mother to look after and a baby daughter to feed – there was no guarantees that despite his record deal he was going to make it through 1994 alive – which explains his abject nihilism throughout the album.

Beef with 2Pac

In 1995, Biggie released an album with his group Junior M.A.F.I.A titled ‘Conspiracy’. The singles ‘Player’s Anthem’ and ‘get Money’ went Gold and Platinum. The Notorious B.I.G became the top selling rapper in the U.S in 1995 and won a number of awards at the Source Awards in that year, as well as rapper of the year at the Billboard awards.

In the same year as he was finding his way to the top he was also becoming embroiled in the East versus West Coast hip hop scene rivalry which also involved his now former friend, 2pac. Whilst he was serving time in 1995 2pac accused Biggie of having prior knowledge of the robbery that resulted in him being shot five times.

2pac released a diss track in the same year titled, claiming to have slept with the Notorious B.I.G’s estranged wife, Faith Evans and claiming that his style and image had been copied by Biggie. He did not directly respond to the diss track but did reference it in Jay-Z’s song “Brooklyn’s Finest”. 2pac was shot in the same year and rumors immediately spread that Biggie may have had something to do with it.

They were known for being arch enemies, but before that was the case 2pac and Biggie were really good friends. So much so, that Tupac bought Biggie his very first Rolex watch.

Whilst recording his second album the Notorious B.I.G and Lil’Cease were arrested for smoking pot and their car was repossessed. They hired a Chevrolet Lumina as a replacement but the car had brake issues and collided with a railing, injuring both Biggie and Lil’Cease. Biggie spent months in a wheelchair as a result but continued to work on his album.

Day of Biggie’s Death

In 1997, Biggie was promoting and recording his album Life After Death and said that he hired security. A few days later after attending an after party Biggie and his entourage were at a red light when an Impala pulled up alongside his car.

The Impala’s driver, an unidentified African-American man dressed in a blue suit and bow tie shot him with a 9mm blue-steel pistol. Four bullets hit Biggie, and his entourage subsequently rushed him to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where doctors performed an emergency thoracotomy, but he was pronounced dead at 1:15 a.m on March 9, 1997. He was 24 years old. His autopsy, which was released 15 years after his death, showed that only the final shot was fatal; it entered through his right hip and struck his colon, liver, heart, and left lung before stopping in his left shoulder.

Biggie was supposed to be on a plane to London on the night he died, but instead went to a party in LA to celebrate finishing his second album, Diddy recalls. “That morning I got a call from Biggie. He was supposed to go to London. He called me and said, ‘I’m not going to London’.” Diddy continued: “The call just plays over and over in my head… What if he would have just got on the plane?”

Later on Diddy (known at the time as Puff Daddy) would read a eulogy at Biggie’s funeral, in it he said; “Big made me feel like I could conquer the world. Everyday I wake up and pray that it’s all just a horrible dream. But it’s not. Big’s gone.” As his funeral ended, the instrumental of ‘Miss U’ was played. The song, which contains an interpolation of ‘Missing You’ by Diana Ross was played as guests left the service.

After Biggie’s Death

The last song Biggie ever recorded was ‘Victory’. The track, recorded for Puff Daddy’s debut studio album No Way Out in 1997, was recorded on 8th March, one day before Biggie was killed.

His second album was released sixteen days after his death and went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts. In 1999 the album Born Again was released with previously unheard tracks.

Ready To Die wasn’t certified platinum till after Biggie’s death. The album has an iconic status but was actually a slow burner when it was released, having only moved 57,000 copies in its first week album sales. The album picked up momentum when Biggie dropped “Big Poppa”, but wasn’t certified platinum till 1999, two years after his death.

Conclusion

To this day, his murder remains unsolved, and many aspects of the rap icon’s identity remain a mystery. The Notorious B.I.G still remains, for many, the best rapper that ever lived. Biggie laid down the marker for how to go after rappers without calling them out explicitly. As Theo Parrish noted in The Wire magazine, he was the master of “eloquent aggression.”

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