For over two decades the murder of rap star The Notorious B.I.G. has been the subject of many theories and questions but very little by way of answers as to who was responsible for his untimely death. Now a retired FBI agent has made allegations suggesting that he knows who was behind the killing and why it was set up.

Phil Carson, a former FBI agent who investigated the case for two years, said in an interview with the New York Post that the hit was arranged by Suge Knight, the founder of Death Row Records, as retaliation for the murder of Tupac Shakur. A further revelation by the ex-agent was that the target of the hit was not actually Notorious, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, but fellow rapper and founder of Bad Boy Records, Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs.

While it is easy to dismiss such claims as one person's opinion, especially when a crime has gone unsolved for over twenty years, Carson's allegations have been backed up by two filmmakers who have claimed they have had access to court papers that corroborate everything. If true, then these are the answers that have been sought by many since March 1997 when the rapper, who also went by the name of Biggie Smalls, was gunned down at the age of 24.

Carson said that Knight, who is currently serving a 28 year prison sentence for murder in a hit and run case, paid Amir Muhammad, who was also known as Harry Billups before changing his name when he joined the Nation of Islam, to take out the rapper as part of the East Coast-West Coast feud. Muhammad is reportedly now once again known as Billups, and is currently thought to be working in Georgia as a realtor.

In his interview, Carson said, "All the evidence points to Amir Muhammad. He's the one who pulled the trigger. There were plenty of others who helped orchestrate it [and] allowed him to pull the trigger. I had evidence that LAPD officers were involved and I was shut down by the LAPD and city attorneys inside Los Angeles."

The claims being made by Carson are not in fact new, as Muhammad has been suspected as having an involvement in the rapper's death for many years. The murder of Wallace took place six months after the shooting of Tupac Shakur, whose death has also remained unsolved for almost 25 years. Tupac Shakur was killed in Las Vegas, hours after watching a Mike Tyson boxing match. The killing instantly raised security worries of a revenge hit on the Bad Boy Records entourage. Six months later it seemed that the worries were proved to be true, when while travelling as part of a three car entourage his vehicle came under fire from another car that pulled up beside them when they stopped at a red light.

Don Sikorski, who was executive producer on the movie City of Lies, which starred Johnny Depp and Forest Whitaker as real-life detective Russell Poole and a fictional reporter respectively who join forces to search for the truth behind the Notorious murder, said that he and director Brad Furman were granted access to documents from a civil lawsuit brought by Wallace's family against the LAPD. He said, "All the answers are in black and while. When you read those [sealed] documents there is overwhelming evidence that paints for you exactly who did the murder and why [the LAPD] covered it up."

City of Lies was initially meant to be released in the US in September 2018, but was pulled by the distributor. Saban Films finally acquired the rights to the movie, and released it in March this year. This story originated at The Jasmine Brand.