Who Killed Biggie Smalls? Despite Conspiracies And Autopsy Report, Murder Still Unsolved

Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls or the Notorious B.I.G., died 20 years ago Thursday in what the New York Post recently called "rap's greatest mystery." Wallace was fatally shot in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997 while leaving a club — just months after Tupac Shakur died in a drive-by in Las Vegas — and the case has never been completely solved.

“It still hurts that nothing has been done," Wallace's 64-year-old mother told the Post this week ahead of the anniversary of his murder. "His death is not something I want to celebrate. But I am grateful to everyone who remembers him."

Read: Is Biggie The Greatest Rapper Of All Time?

Biggie Smalls, a rapper from Brooklyn, helped raise the status of East Coast hip hop as a teenager in the 90s. With hit songs like "Kick in the Door," "Big Poppa" and "10 Crack Commandments," Biggie quickly became an icon for his deep voice, unique perspective and lyrical flow.

On the night of his death, he was leaving a music industry party just after midnight when a car pulled up alongside him on the street. The driver, a black man wearing a suit, looked at Biggie, pulled out a gun and fired, hitting the young rapper four times. He was rushed to the hospital but was ultimately pronounced dead at 1:15 a.m. local time, according to the Los Angeles Times. He was 24, weighing 395 pounds and standing just over 6 feet tall.

Documents from Wallace's autopsy and the FBI investigation into his death were only released about five years ago. The FBI files showed the agency was trying to connect Tupac's murder with Biggie's, that Wallace was shot with European ammunition and that corrupt officers with the Los Angeles Police Department may have been involved, according to TIME.

Read: Best Quotes From The Notorious B.I.G.

Of course, given the lack of confirmed developments in the case, conspiracy theories have cropped up over the past two decades. Some people believe the rapper is living in hiding in New Zealand with Tupac, that Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs killed Biggie for profit or that Eminem and Dr. Dre were involved in the murder, according to the New York Daily News.

Regardless, the Notorious B.I.G. was severely missed Thursday, with multiple trending topics on social media honoring his life and legacy.

"Big influenced a generation. This whole generation took pieces and bits," rapper AZ told NPR in 2010. "Everybody took a piece out of Big that's on the charts right now. Everybody."