Life After Death was scheduled for release on March 25, 1997. Wallace cited that the reasons for the decision were not only the ongoing East Coast–West Coast hip hop feud and the murder of Tupac Shakur six months prior, but that security was simply a necessity for high-profile celebrity figures in general. On March 5, he gave a radio interview with The Dog House on San Francisco's KYLD, in which he stated that he had hired security because he feared for his safety. Ĭhristopher Wallace traveled to Los Angeles, California, in February 1997 to promote his upcoming second studio album, Life After Death, and to film a music video for its lead single, " Hypnotize". Retired LAPD Officer Greg Kading alleged that Marion "Suge" Knight, the head of Death Row Records, orchestrated the murder in revenge for the September 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur in a similar drive-by homicide by gunshot. In 2006, Wallace's mother, Voletta Wallace, his widow, Faith Evans, and his children T'yanna Jackson and Christopher Jordan "CJ" Wallace, filed a $400 million second wrongful death lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) alleging that corrupt officers were responsible for Wallace's death.
Harry Billups (suspected shooter by Russell Poole)Ĭhristopher Wallace, an American rapper known professionally as the Notorious B.I.G., was murdered in a drive-by shooting in the early hours of Main Los Angeles, California. Suge Knight (allegedly orchestrated killing).