Biggie Smalls had been getting death threats while he was in LA but decided to go to a Vibe magazine party after the cancellation of a trip to Europe, per Biography and Rolling Stone. He and his entourage from Big Boy Records drank champagne and hobnobbed at the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Boulevard. in LA’s Miracle Mile neighborhood, believing he would be safe.
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But among the attendees that night were members of the Bloods and Crips, rival street gangs, some of whose members had affiliated themselves with the two antagonistic hip-hop record companies, Big Boy and Death Row, on the West Coast, per Rolling Stone. Even so, the party had a relaxed vibe and when Biggie hopped on the phone of DJ Irv Gotti, his and Jay-Zs mutual friend who’d placed the call, he was in good spirits as he chatted with Jay-Z, per HipHopDX. “He felt like he finally was back in Los Angeles and everything was where it was supposed to be,” Jay-Z recalled in 2010, according to Elle Canada.
