Like many skeptical observers of the recent release of F.B.I. files related to the long-mired investigation into the murder of The Notorious B.I.G., one of the initial targets of law enforcement for the crime too believes that the content of those files contain propaganda purposefully contrived for public view, while the feds continue to withhold valuable information from the masses regarding the murder.
“They know who killed that man,” scoffed DJ Quik in response to those files before concluding his recent eye-popping interview with HipHopDX. “You know they picked me up for questioning about that shit before?”
In 1998, at the conclusion of his third verse to “You’z A Ganxta,” Quik briefly referenced the Los Angeles Police Department’s initial suspicions of his involvement in the shooting.
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“Just because I was there at that [VIBE]party [with Biggie before the shooting], they tapped my phones, found out my accountant’s number and went and posted up and waited for me at my accountant’s office to pick me up for questioning,” recalled Quik. “And it was only because I owned a ’95 [Chevy] Impala [SS] that was black cherry colored like the one that was used supposedly in the shooting – which was probably black, mine was burgundy, but at night they look identical in color.”
While the L.A.P.D. sought out Quik to question him about his ownership of the same make and model car seen by eyewitnesses speeding away from the scene of the shooting, they never interviewed their then fellow L.A.P.D. officer David Mack. Mack, who also owned an Impala fitting the description of the alleged shooter’s vehicle, is the man onetime lead detective on the case, Russell Poole, has long suspected of arranging the hit on The Notorious B.I.G.
“When they came to my accountant’s [office] to come get me, I ended up calling my lawyer and I told him what was going on,” continued Quik regarding his ordeal as murder suspect. “So he called the Parker Center and arranged for me to go up there and talk to ‘em, instead of them gafflin’ me up and making a scene. So I went down there and told ‘em everything I knew, everything I saw, the whole shit. And after I did that the burden was off. ‘Cause it was rumors in the street that I did that shit. How am I gonna kill Biggie Smalls when I like him? Who does that?!”
Following the murder, one of the immediate reports from a reliable Hip Hop media source, veteran Bay Area-based journalist Davey D, documented the initial speculation that surrounded DJ Quik, noting, “Rumors immediately began to surface. Witnesses claim that Notorious BIG [had] earlier that evening engaged in a heated argument with DJ Quik. The rumors speculating that Quik had something to do with the shooting immediately circulated around the Bay Area.”
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His association to then Death Row Records CEO Marion “Suge” Knight, and both men’s open affiliations to Piru Blood gang sets, further fueled speculation that both were somehow involved in the slaying of Biggie Smalls.
Quik however has long claimed an otherwise innocuous connection to his childhood surroundings, as evidenced on his new album, The Book of David, with the punctuation to one of his “Poppin’” bars: “Party at the St. Regis multipurpose room wit’ a grip, Blood.”
But regardless of the Compton, California native’s associations, past or present, the recent document dump by the F.B.I. is in the opinion of many much like the misguided pursuit of a fellow artist for the murder of B.I.G.: just another distraction.
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“Of course [it is],” agreed Quik. “Unfortunately, we really did lose – we lost the essence of Hip Hop. We lost the core. Hip Hop [became] a very expensive sports car body without an engine.”
Quik’s revelations above regarding the L.A.P.D.’s attempt to possibly pin the murder of The Notorious B.I.G. on him, along with all of the other jaw-dropping revelations he made to HipHopDX, were not supposed to surface during an interview, but rather from Quik’s own pen.
“I was gonna write a book,” he explained of the origins of The Book of David concept, “and chronicle my life, and use some names that people can relate to and whatever. Then I thought about it, How important are my memoirs when Hip Hop don’t give a fuck about me? So, I’m thinking it makes no sense to write a book.”
Quik instead decided to share his “Killer Dope” stories of struggle and survival at various points during his new audio diary.
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“It would probably be better if I had somebody do a biography instead of me doing an autobiography,” he further explained of the decision to pass on penning his memoir. “Because, when I started writing my book, some of that shit that I had to recall and think about that was made for interesting reading made me cry on the fuckin’ legal pad, real tears. So, I think if that shit made me cry …. Who would do that to human beings? I started thinking about that shit, and I realized that this shit would probably be too much information for anybody. A lot of people would be able to relate. And it’s the same ol’ sad story: grew up in a poorer neighborhood on welfare and joined a gang because I got tired of being bullied. But, some of that shit was just plain fuckin’ strange, and I don’t even wanna share that shit. So I’d rather do a violent, vile, vitriolic-ass record – on some songs – and be cathartic on records, and then still share the passionate side of the man that I am, that makes those dope-ass, really melodic songs. But I am all music, so I am the very worst of it, and I am the absolute best of it.”
