Unraveling the Dark Side of Fame: P Diddy's Allegations and the Shadows of Notorious B.I.G's Murder

From the Bay Flavor Story Series

“It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character.” - Marcus Aurelius

It was Monday, March 10^th, 1997. A 10-year-old version of myself walked home from St. Paul’s Catholic School in St. Petersburg, FL in the mid-afternoon. Just like any other day, I made my way to the living room couch and fired up the television set for my f(l)avorite show at the time: Total Request Live (commonly referred to as TRL). If you are around my age, then you know the show I speak of. For those of you who may be a little younger or older, allow me to explain. Total Request Live (TRL) was a popular television program on MTV that featured the top ten most requested music videos of the day, as voted by viewers, along with celebrity interviews, music news, and special segments. It was hosted by Carson Daly and aired at 3:30pm Eastern. That’s right kids. People my age woke up, attended school, and went home before consuming anything from a screen. How on Earth did we make it?!?!  

Joking aside, when I flipped the ol’ clunky television set to MTV that day, there was a “special announcement” from Kurt Loder on a segment dubbed MTV News. Kurt told me that Christopher Wallace (a.k.a. “The Notorious B.I.G.”) had been gunned down in Los Angeles early the previous morning. For the kids out there once again: I was just as shocked at hearing this news as you are hearing I didn’t receive said news until some 30 hours after the incident! That’s just how the 90s was (for a ten-year-old boy at least).  

 I could not find the actual clip I saw featuring Kurt Loder when I first heard the news. This is one featuring Serena Altschul, another MTV News correspondent.

So, Biggie was dead less than a year after contemporary and friend Tupac Shakur was murdered in a very similar fashion. At the time, I wasn’t very big into Biggie’s music because I was not allowed to buy music like the kind Biggie made. Again, I did not have the luxury of literally listening to any song in human history with the touch of a few buttons. I knew him mostly from cool music videos I would see on TRL, namely “Hypnotize.” Growing into my teens and eventually 20s, I started listening to more of Biggie’s music and researching the East Coast-West Coast rivalry that many pointed to as the reason for his death.