Earlier this year, Brooklyn resident LeRoy McCarthy started an online petition to name a local street corner after Biggie Smalls, specifically an intersection near the late rapper's childhood home. The petition gained enough strength to be brought before a community board hearing yesterday and DNA Info reports that the board members weren't so keen on dedicating part of their neighborhood to the man responsible for "Ten Crack Commandments." In fact, they complained that Biggie was too criminal, too misogynistic, and, weirdly, too physically unfit to deserve the tribute.

That's essentially what one member told the room:

Internationally famous rap star Tupac Shakur was shot dead in an extremely public fashion in 1996. Internationally famous rap star Biggie Smalls was shot dead in an extremely public fashion in 1997. Still, no one has ever been charged with their murders. That is some bullshit. However! A new book from a former LAPD investigator on the case has very interesting story to tell.

Biggie Smalls was one of the greatest rappers of our generation. Way nicer lyrically than the more iconic Tupac, his fellow murdered MC. Another point in favor of Biggie: he had a crazier wife. That would be Faith Evans, the Bad Boy R&B singer who is most famous for-let's be honest-being Biggie's wife. Now Faith has written an autobiographical book, and although I'm sure there's lots in there about empowerment, mourning, etc., check out this part where she sneaks into Biggie's house, pulls Lil Kim out of his bed, and beats her ass!:

What time is it? Time to pile on the LA Times for its fictitious Tupac shooting story! When one of the nation's top four papers (or, one that once held that position) splashes an investigative story this big that turns out to be based on forged evidence from a lifelong con man, you can expect a lot of tsk-tsking from the journalism establishment. But actually the reaction has been pretty muted. The reason: most reporters know deep down that they could be done in by fake documents just as easily. Slate's Jack Shafer has a rather gentle column today on what LAT reporter Chuck Philips could have done differently—mainly, don't trust con men, and always vet your documents. Your sympathy for Philips (those were convincing forgeries, after all) might be diminished, though, by this quote he gave in a recent web chat, defending his 2002 story that alleged that Biggie "Christopher Wallace" Smalls was involved in Tupac's murder—he sure was sensitive about forged documents back then:

Rap mogul Sean "Puff Diddy Daddy" Combs has denied yesterday's LA Times report that he had advance knowledge of a 1994 ambush on rival Tupac Shakur that left Tupac with five bullet wounds. Jimmy "Henchman" Rosemond, the music manager that the Times named as the mastermind of the attack, also denied the charges. The Times is standing by its story so far. Below, Puffy's and Rosemond's statements—as well as (BONUS!) the lyrics to two verses of "Who Shot Ya?," the 1994 Biggie Smalls/ Puffy song that was widely believed to be an allusion to the Tupac shooting in question.