“It Was a Hit”: Mase Breaks 27 Years of Silence, Names Snoop Dogg and Death Row in Biggie Smalls Murder
For nearly three decades, the murder of Christopher Wallace—the legendary Notorious B.I.G.—has remained one of hip-hop’s most haunting unsolved mysteries. Now, a key witness from inside Biggie’s inner circle has finally spoken.
Mase, the Bad Boy rapper who rose to fame alongside Biggie in the 1990s, has broken his 27-year silence. In a bombshell appearance on Cam’ron’s “It Is What It Is” sports talk show, Mase did not simply hint at suspicion. He looked directly at the camera and accused Snoop Dogg, Death Row Records, and corrupt LAPD officers of being directly involved in orchestrating the murder of his friend.
“To me, I feel Biggie died because he came to LA,” Mase said. Then he dropped an even more explosive claim: “Biggie’s dead because Pac lied.”
The Setup: More Than a Random Shooting
For years, the official narrative has been that Biggie Smalls was killed on March 9, 1997, in a drive-by shooting outside the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles—a random act of violence stemming from the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop feud. But Mase insists otherwise.
“It wasn’t like a random fan who just walked up like ‘I’m going to shoot Biggie Smalls,'” Mase said. “That’s the way people look at it. It was a setup. It was a hit.”
Mase revealed that on the night of the murder, he was trapped in his hotel room, unable to leave because of the danger surrounding Bad Boy’s entourage. “It was about probably 70 or so Bloods in the hallway,” he recalled. “I couldn’t even leave my room.”
The rapper described how the security situation in Los Angeles that weekend felt wrong from the start. People he didn’t recognize were suddenly providing security. Information about Bad Boy’s schedule seemed to be leaking. And when the convoy left the Soul Train Awards after-party, the off-duty LAPD officers who were supposed to be escorting them mysteriously disappeared—leaving Biggie’s SUV completely exposed.
The 2016 Bad Boy Reunion: The Moment Mase Refused to Pretend
Mase’s decision to speak publicly was triggered by an event that happened nearly two decades after Biggie’s death: the 2016 Bad Boy Family Reunion Tour.
During the final show at the Los Angeles Forum, Puff Daddy (now Diddy) surprised the crowd by bringing Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg on stage. The audience erupted, seeing it as a historic peace gesture between the legendary rival labels. But backstage, Mase was furious.
While every other Bad Boy artist walked onto that stage for the “unity moment,” Mase refused. He stayed backstage because, in his mind, he was looking at the people connected to Biggie’s murder.
“So, you know, it was a hit put on him,” Mase said flatly.
He couldn’t understand how Puff could bring those people out when Biggie’s murder had never been solved and nobody had faced consequences. To Mase, the reunion stage was a fake performance designed to make it look like old beef was squashed. But for someone who rode in the convoy the night his friend died, standing next to Death Row artists was unthinkable.
The Specific Accusation: Snoop Was “Hunting” Biggie
Mase did not stop at vague suspicions. He laid out specific evidence about why he believes Snoop Dogg and Death Row were involved.
According to Mase, Gene Deal—Puff Daddy’s former bodyguard who was actually in the convoy the night Biggie was shot—had told him that Snoop was literally hunting Biggie in the hours before the murder. Snoop was asking around about where Bad Boy was staying, what parties they were hitting, and when they’d be leaving.
Gene claimed he’d seen Snoop at multiple locations that night, always asking questions about Biggie’s movements. The timing, Mase argued, was too suspicious to be coincidence.
“If Snoop was really cool with Biggie like he claimed after the fact,” Mase said, “why was he hunting him down that night? Why was he so interested in Biggie’s movements? And why, if he knew something was going to happen, didn’t he warn anyone?”
Mase called out the inconsistency in Snoop’s public statements over the years. Sometimes Snoop talks about them being friends who hung out together. Other times he admits there was tension because of the East Coast-West Coast beef. Mase’s point was simple: Snoop can’t have it both ways.
“Either they were friends and Snoop should have protected him, or they were enemies and Snoop’s presence in LA that weekend was part of the plot.”
The Phone Call That Changed Everything
Mase also pointed to something even more damning: a phone call that allegedly happened between Bad Boy security and Reggie Wright Jr., the head of Death Row security, just hours before Biggie was killed.
According to multiple sources who have investigated the case, someone from Bad Boy’s team contacted Reggie Wright asking for additional security help in Los Angeles. Reggie allegedly said he’d send people to keep an eye on the situation. But instead of sending protection, the theory is that Reggie used that call to get exact information about where Biggie would be and when—then passed that intelligence to the shooters.
The setup was so well coordinated that the car carrying the shooter was already parked at the corner near the Petersen Automotive Museum before Biggie’s convoy even arrived. Multiple witnesses, including people who were in Puff’s car, have said the Impala SS that pulled up wasn’t following them—it was waiting for them.
The car had been sitting at that corner all night with a clear view of the intersection where Biggie’s SUV would have to stop at a red light. When the convoy approached, the Impala was perfectly positioned to pull alongside and execute the hit.
The Corrupt Cops: A Private Police Force Inside the LAPD
The evidence suggesting a Death Row-organized hit grows even stronger when you examine the behavior of two LAPD officers: David Mack and Rafael Perez.
Both officers were deeply connected to Death Row Records despite department rules against off-duty work for record labels. Multiple Death Row employees have confirmed seeing both Mack and Perez at the studio, at parties, and hanging around Suge Knight like they were part of the crew rather than cops.
Mack, in particular, was close to Suge. He’d been introduced to Death Row by a female officer who brought him to video shoots, where he started networking with rappers to get off-duty security work.
“Moeb James,” one of Suge’s top enforcers, described how the corrupt LAPD officers working with Death Row would literally protect them from other cops. If Death Row got into a confrontation somewhere and regular police showed up, the officers on Suge’s payroll would intervene and make sure nobody from Death Row got arrested. It was essentially a private police force operating inside the LAPD.
That level of protection would have been crucial for planning and executing a hit on someone as high-profile as Biggie without getting caught.
The Shooter: Wardell “Poochie” Fouse
Gene Deal, who has been saying the same things as Mase for years, has named Wardell “Poochie” Fouse as the actual trigger man. Poochie was a known Mob Piru gang member who worked as muscle for Suge Knight and had a reputation as a stone-cold killer who would do anything for money.
According to the theory that Gene and other investigators support, Reggie Wright Jr. coordinated the entire operation. After receiving the call from Bad Boy security asking for help, Reggie allegedly contacted Poochie and gave him the details: where Biggie would be, what time he’d be leaving the museum, and what route the convoy would take.
Poochie then positioned himself at the corner in the Impala SS, waited for Biggie’s SUV to stop at the red light, and executed the hit exactly as planned.
The evidence supporting this theory includes testimony from Teresa Swann, Suge Knight’s ex-wife, who told investigators that she was present when Suge handed Poochie $13,000 in cash shortly after Biggie’s murder. She claimed Suge told her the money was payment for “taking care of business,” and that Poochie had done exactly what he was hired to do.
Suge has denied this, but in a recorded conversation, he pointed to the sky and refused to say anything except that only three people knew what really happened: him, Teresa, and “the person who’s dead”—meaning Poochie, who was killed in 2003.
The LAPD Cover-Up: Detective Russell Poole’s Warning
Gene has also talked about how the LAPD deliberately sabotaged the investigation to protect the officers involved. Detective Russell Poole, who was initially assigned to the case, believed from the beginning that Death Row and corrupt cops were responsible. But he was taken off the investigation after he started getting too close to David Mack and Rafael Perez.
The department claimed Poole was going down the wrong path—that there was no evidence connecting LAPD officers to the murder. But Poole maintained until his death that the cover-up went all the way to the top.
Why Mase Is Speaking Now
After 27 years of silence, why did Mase finally decide to expose what he really believes about Biggie’s murder?
Part of it seems to be that Mase is done playing the industry game. He has found religion, walked away from secular music multiple times, and reached a point where he doesn’t care about protecting relationships or maintaining fake peace for the sake of business.
When he saw Puff bringing Death Row artists on stage like everything was cool, something inside him snapped. Loyalty to Biggie’s memory meant more than any reunion tour or photo opportunity.
The other factor is that Mase knows he was there. He rode in that convoy. He saw the aftermath of the shooting. He watched Biggie die in the street while they waited for an ambulance that took too long to arrive. That is not something you forget or forgive. Watching people act like it’s ancient history while the killers walk free became unbearable.
What This Means for Snoop, Dre, and Death Row
For Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, and anyone else Mase is implicating, the accusations put them in an impossible position. They cannot really respond without either admitting knowledge they have denied for years or attacking Mase’s credibility—which would look terrible given that he has no obvious motive to lie.
The safest move is probably to ignore it and hope it blows over. But Mase’s willingness to keep talking suggests this story is not going away quietly.
Will the Case Be Reopened?
Whether Mase’s accusations will lead to any real action remains unclear. The official investigation into Biggie’s murder has been closed for years, with the LAPD claiming they did everything possible but could not develop enough evidence to prosecute anyone.
The task force that looked into the case identified Poochie as the shooter but could not charge him because he was already dead. They claimed they did not have enough proof to charge Suge or anyone else who might have ordered the hit.
But with Mase now publicly stating what many people have suspected privately, the pressure on law enforcement to reopen the case might increase. A prominent witness who was actually there is now willing to say on camera that he knows Death Row was involved, that Snoop was hunting Biggie that night, and that corrupt cops helped coordinate the murder.
That creates new momentum for families and activists who have been demanding justice for decades.
