A new team of police are investigating the still unsolved murder of rapper Notorious BIG, aka Christopher Wallace - hopefully with fewer officers themselves implicated in the killing involved this time round. LA Asst City Attorney Don Vincent has confirmed that officers were "following up on leads" relating to the murder, which occurred way back in 1997, of course.
As previously reported, the rapper's family attempted to sue the LAPD last year over their failure to properly investigate the case, amid allegations that certain officers deliberately sabotaged the case in order to protect former colleagues linked to the killing. When it came to light that the LAPD had 'found' crucial evidence lying in a drawer at the last minute, evidence which would radically alter the Wallace family's case, the judge hearing the lawsuit declared a mistrial and awarded the family $1.6 million damages plus $500,000 expenses for the police force's seeming incompetence.
The announcement that LAPD officers are back on the case comes as the Wallace family prepare to take their lawsuit against the LA authorities back to court later this year.
Elsewhere in Biggie-related legal news, a US judge has stopped sales of the rapper's 1994 album 'Ready To Die' after the owners of music by a funk band called the Ohio Players said that the album's title track had sampled one of their songs without permission. The courts awarded Bridgeport Music and Westbound Records $4.2 million in damages over claims that Diddy's Bad Boy Entertainment, who released the album, failed to get their permission to include a sample of the Ohio Players' song 'Singing In The Morning' on the Biggie track.
The case is one of hundreds brought by Bridgeport and Westbound over the unauthorised sampling of their music - most of which have been settled out of court. The defendants in this case, which include Bad Boy Entertainment, Justin Combs Publishing and Universal Records, have said they will appeal. Bridgeport and Westbound originally named the estate of Biggie in the legal proceedings, but later withdrew that claim.