On this day, 9 March 1997, beloved New York rapper Biggie Smalls (The Notorious B.I.G.) is gunned down in Los Angeles streets just six months after his rival Tupac Shakur met the same fate.

The 24-year-old rapper, born Christopher Wallace, is in Los Angeles to promote the release of his second album, Life After Death, and film a music video for his hit single “Hypnotize”.” The heated rivalry between the East Coast and West Coast hip-hop scenes, mainly driven by the feud between Biggie and Tupac Shakur, has slowly come to a halt after 2Pac was fatally shot down in Las Vegas, Nevada.