The Los Angeles City Council partnered recently with the African American Film Critics Association to honor the USA Network series “Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G.,” which is currently airing on the network.
The series profiles the lives of the two famous rappers Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G, both of whom were shot to death in the 1990s in killings that remain unsolved. It explores the police investigations into the homicides, including the accusation by one detective that Los Angeles police officers may be responsible for one of the deaths and it was covered up.
Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson (Eighth District) told the council the series was being honored as part of the inaugural AAFCA Day at City Hall for they way it depicted his neighborhood, which during the 90s was plagued with gang violence and severely impacted by the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.
Harris-Dawson said he wanted the council to honor films and TV shows that depict South Los Angeles “in a way that respects our dignity and makes us full human beings, and even when we have stories that have sadness and tragedy we do them in a way that shows ours neighborhoods, shows our communities and shows our people in a positive way. And so today I’m very proud to partner with the African American Film Critics Association to recognize a particular project that has been shooting over the last few years about a time in our city that was very tumultuous, the early and mid 1990s.”
Shakur was killed in a car-to-car shooting on Sept. 13, 1996 in Las Vegas, while The Notorious B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace and also went by the stage name Biggie Smalls, was killed in a car-to-car shooting in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997. Both men were among the most popular musicians in the country at the time of their deaths.
Harris-Dawson said the series is noteworthy for the time to it took to explore the lives of the people who knew the rappers, and for showing how the rappers’ relationship was complex, as the two were close friends before various feuds sparked a public rivalry some believe is connected to their deaths.
“It talks about the relationship between Tupac and Biggie Smalls and it talks about the relationships of the people around them,” Harris-Dawson said. “I think a lot of times when these stories get told, its just, ‘Oh it’s just one gang against another gang and people get killed.’
And it’s much deeper than that, and the conflicts go much deeper, and you have all the themes of jealousy and envy and insecurity and all that come with any tragedy like this. And this series shows that.”
