Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry, episode 044: The East Coast-West Coast hip-hop war

Alan Cross Corus Radio

July 8, 2025 9:30 am

Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry, episode 044: The East Coast-West Coast hip-hop war

It was just after midnight on March 9, 1997, when one of the greatest rappers of all time got ready to leave for a party in the Hollywood Hills. At 12:30 am, he left with his entourage in two green 1997 Chevrolet Suburbans headed towards Steve Stoute’s house.

The record company executive was hosting an after-party, and the music was so overcrowded and loud, the smoke so thick, that neighbours called the Los Angeles Fire Department. When they got to Stoute’s home, they shut the party down.

Meanwhile, the rapper was still on his way, travelling in the front passenger seat of one of the Suburbans alongside his associates Damon “D-Roc” Butler, Junior M.A.F.I.A. member Lil’ Cease, and driver Gregory “G-Money” Young. The other vehicle was being driven by Kenny Story and carried Eugene “Gene” Deal, Anthony “Tone” Jacobs, Stevie J, and Bad Boy Records executive Sean Combs.

The two SUVs were trailed by a Chevrolet Blazer carrying the company’s director of security, Paul Offord, and driven by an off-duty Inglewood police officer named Reggie Blaylock. Tensions were high. The men in the two vehicles felt like they were in enemy territory. And they were right to be wary.

Six months earlier, another influential rapper had died in a drive-by shooting on a Las Vegas street. Many blamed the rapper currently making his way through L.A. streets this evening. The two had been embroiled in a bicoastal feud that would cost many more their lives.

By 12:45 a.m., the streets were crowded at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and South Fairfax Avenue. Many had left venues on what is known as Museum Row as the rapper’s SUV stopped at a red light. Less than 50 metres away, a dark-colored mid-90s Chevrolet Impala SS drove towards the side of the rapper’s Suburban. The driver of the Impala was a Black man wearing a light blue suit and bow tie. He stopped beside the car, lowered his window, drew a 9 mm pistol, and fired six shots into the Suburban.

The rapper was hit four times. He was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where doctors performed an emergency thoracotomy. Their efforts were fruitless, and he was pronounced dead at 1:15 a.m.

This time on Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry, it’s the story behind the death of Christopher Wallace, better known as the Notorious B.I.G., and how his death led to a “peace” summit in what was known as the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop war.

Get Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry wherever you get your podcasts. Both Uncharted and The Ongoing History of New Music will be heard back-to-back overnights five days a week on these Corus news stations:

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