Biggies’ NY label boss Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs to bring his life and grisly death to screen

By Jeffrey Jolson

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 5/1/07 — The short life and apparent assassination of rapper Notorious (“Biggie Smalls”) B.I.G is to be brought to the big screen by hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs – one of the participants on the East Coast side in the 90s Rap Wars.

Notorious B.I.G, — who was born Christopher Wallace in Brooklyn, NY, was shot dead in Los Angeles in March 1997, a slaying that has often been attributed to the intense East Coast-West Coast rap wars that erupted from musical threats to bullets that year.

The murder, which remains unsolved, came six months after noted Notorious B.I.G rival Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas. Shakur’s killers also remain at large.

Combs founded New York’s Bad Boy Records in 1993 with Biggie providing some of its top early hits. Meanwhile, Suge Knight and his L.A.-based Death Row Records challenged Bad Boys leading position with Tupac “2Pac” Shakur. The labels and artists began a very public rivalry that ran from press comments and award show taunts. It came to a head when Shakur publically accused Biggie and Combs of having facilitated his being shot five times at a New York recording studio in 1994. They denied having anything to do with the shooting.

Shortly after the shooting Bad Boy released a b-side single from Big Poppa called “Who Shot Ya?” which Shakur claimed was proof the pair were involved. Combs said the song was written before the shooting incident. Shakur responded “”Who shot me? But your punks didn’t finish, Now you ‘bout to feel the wrath of a menace…”

By 1996, things came to a head. The rivals, for awards as well as pride, traded escalating taunts and displayed weapons outside of award shows.

Wallace’s story would be based on Wallace’s biography, “Unbelievable: The Life, Death and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G.” Some reports had Anthony Anderson (Hustle and Flow,” “Barbershop”) playing Biggie, though a casting call was held recently for a possible newcomer.

Wallace’s family has fought a long-running legal battle against authorities in Los Angeles, alleging that a police officer was involved in the murder, which bore all the hallmarks of a contract killing.