ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 11, 1997 TAG: 9703110117
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: EMILY DUNNE AND MADELYN ROSENBERG THE ROANOKE TIMES
The second death of a major rapper in six months is making waves, but ``violence was here long before hip-hop,'' said one philosophical fan.
Ahkee Vega rolled up the left leg of his jeans to show a bullet wound - a scar left over from growing up in Los Angeles.
"The world today is violent," said 19-year-old Vega, now of Roanoke.
Violence was at LA's forefront again Sunday when The Notorious B.I.G., the 24-year-old rap star also known as Biggie Smalls, was killed in a drive-by shooting.
The effects of the shooting were felt far from the violent urban streets where Smalls, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, died.
Monday afternoon at Valley View Mall in Roanoke, Vega and his friends talked about the second death of a major rapper in six months. Tupac Shakur was killed last fall in Las Vegas.
"Violence ain't ever good," Vega said.
Wallace "always talked about dying and killing," said Jay Smalls, 19, of Bedford.
The Notorious B.I.G.'s platinum debut album was called "Ready to Die." Perhaps even more ironic is the title of his upcoming album, due out March 25: "Life After Death 'Til Death Do Us Part."
"It's scary," said Erica Hunter, 20, of Roanoke. "It's like he predicted his own future."
Many attribute Wallace's killing to the rivalry between East Coast and West Coast rappers. Wallace, a New York-based rapper, was considered a rival of California's Shakur, who had accused him of involvement in a 1994 robbery in which Shakur was shot several times. Wallace denied any involvement.
Some think the rivalry was personal in origin. "Tupac was sleeping with Biggie's wife," said Mike Johnson, 21, of Roanoke. "That's what started it."
"I think it's ridiculous," Hunter said. "We all live in the same country and we're going to have a rivalry over music. People should know, words are just words."
Vega said he thought both Shakur and Wallace staged their deaths. "They ain't dead," he said. "They're trying to squash this whole East Coast-West Coast thing."
Many rap fans said they were ready for the rivalry to end. "At first it was kind of exciting," Johnson said. "But now I think, damn, I'm never going to hear his [Wallace's] music again."
Joseph Davis, assistant manager of Camelot Music at Valley View Mall, said his store sold out of The Notorious B.I.G.'s album within two hours of opening Sunday. "People come running in thinking they're worth money," he said.
"Right now, he's one of the top people," said DeMond Owens, a DJ for Virginia Tech's WUVT FM. "I was getting requests for the first single before it even came out."
Owens, 22 and a technology education major at Tech, always thought about going into the record industry, "not being on stage but being a background person. I still want to do it, but I know for sure I never want to be in the foreground," he said. "I don't want to get in the cross fire."
Tracy Rivers, 23, of Roanoke, said Wallace's death hurt hip-hop. "He's another popular rapper who could've made a change," said Rivers, part of Da Pack, a small coalition of Roanoke hip-hop artists. Too many people believe that with rap music comes gun violence, he said. "Honestly, violence was here long before hip-hop. Rap gets a bad rap."
Friday night, architecture major Erica Cochran was home on spring break in Brooklyn, N.Y., watching the Soul Train Music Awards with friends. Wallace presented an award for best R&B/Pop single. "He was so alive," she said.
Monday, back at Tech, she talked with friends about his death.
"Everyone thought someone on the radio was playing a joke," said Cochran, 23. "I wanted to believe, after Tupac dying such a violent death, people would realize killing people is not the thing to do."
Peter Agoston, 17 and a senior at Blacksburg High School, said the singer's death was a topic at school, though "not O.J. Simpson caliber. Ever since the beginning, [hip-hop] has been tagged as violent music, encouraging violence and guns. Lately ... it's starting to live out its fantasy."
For people in the music industry, the surprise lasted only minutes. The grief will last longer.
"Since Tupac got killed, it took a lot of the shock out of it," said Daniel "Duke" Ellington, program and music director for WTOY AM. "It's like a commentary about what's going on. You live the gangsta life, and you die the gangsta life. It's causing a lot of sad faces on this side of town among the teen-agers."
When "Life After Death" comes out on the 25th, "I'll be the first in the store because I know it's the last new music I'll get from him," said Roanoke's Hunter. "I cried really hard yesterday. I love his music."
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS. THE ROANOKE TIMES AHKEE VEGA ofby CNBRoanoke uses Tupac Shakur's ``West Coast'' gesture as he talks about
shooting of The Notorious B.I.G. color. 2. ERICA WILSON,(left) and
Erica Hunter check the CDs Monday at Camelot Music in Valley View
Mall. The store sold out of The Notorious B.I.G.'s music two hours
after opening Sunday. Graphic: Chart by KRT. KEYWORDS: FATALITY