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He set it off!
By Bernadette Giacomazzo — Written on Feb 06, 2020
The murder of Christopher Wallace, better known as The Notorious B.I.G., continues to remain "unsolved," and the mystery surrounding "Biggie's" death plagues hip hop to this day.
More than anything else, fans of the genre — people who are part and parcel of "the culture" — just want answers: who killed Biggie, and why? Yet, no answers seem to be forthcoming — which makes it all the more frustrating.
So, when Diddy's ex-bodyguard Gene Deal made a shocking accusation about Biggie's murder, it created a firestorm of controversy in the hip hop blog-osphere.
Was Mase involved in Biggie's murder? Let's look at these shocking claims.
1. Was Mase involved in Biggie's murder? Gene Deal claims he was.
Eugene "Gene" Deal was, once upon a time, the head of security for Bad Boy Entertainment, the record label founded by Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. These days, however, he makes his living by recording a show in which he makes outrageous claims against his former employer and co-workers.
In any event, on a recent episode of The Gene Deal Show Deal, which you can watch above, claimed that the bullets that killed The Notorious B.I.G. were, in fact, meant for Diddy — and that Mase, one of the artists on the Bad Boy label, was the one who pulled the trigger.
2. Deal was considered a credible witness by officials investigating Biggie's murder.
When Biggie was first murdered, the Los Angeles Police Department, and, ultimately, the FBI, interviewed a wide variety of witnesses to get to the bottom of the killing. And of all the witnesses they interviewed, Deal was considered one of the more credible witnesses of the bunch.
In fact, because he was considered a first-hand eyewitness, his testimony is still considered salient to the investigation to this day.
3. This is not the first time Deal has made these claims.
Back in 2018, an investigation into The Notorious B.I.G.'s murder file revealed that Deal was on the scene when "Biggie" was murdered and he pulled a gun on one of the assailants. While he maintained Diddy was the original target of the murder, Deal claimed back then that the murderer was a member of the controversial Nation of Islam, not Mase.
4. Diddy fired Deal when he realized Deal was talking to the authorities.
By Deal's own admission, Diddy gave him the proverbial pink slip when the mogul and rapper realized Deal was talking to the authorities about Biggie's murder. It seems that in Diddy's world, snitches do, indeed, get stitches — even if only figuratively.
5. So what motive would Mase have to murder Diddy?
Even though his alleged attempt on Diddy's life failed, the question remains: what would be the reason for him to do it in the first place? According to Mase, Diddy gave him a bad deal when he was part of Bad Boy Entertainment and that it was financially predatory in nature, benefitting, of course, Diddy over Mase.
Because Mase got a proverbial raw deal with Diddy, it was inferred — though not outright stated — that he wanted Diddy dead, and allegedly took steps to make that "dead" happen.
6. Mase responded to Deal's accusations.
It didn't take long for Mase to respond to Deal's accusations, as the minute Deal made them, Mase called right into the show to give Deal the old what-for. The two gentlemen go back and forth for more than a few minutes, cursing each other out and lobbing pretty heavy accusations against one another, until Mase finally hung up the phone.
Deal, for his part, continued to shout at Mase, even after he was long off the call.
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, publicist, and photographer whose work has appeared in Teen Vogue, People, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, BET.com, and more.