On this day, March 9, in 1997, 24-year-old Christopher Wallace, the rapper known as Notorious B.I.G., was gunned down at a stoplight in Los Angeles in what is believed to be a feud between rap music artists from the East and West coasts.

The slaying of the New York City-born Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls, occurred just six months after Los Angeles-based rapper Tupac Shakur was shot and killed in Las Vegas.