

The FBI has released hundreds of pages of records from their investigation into the 1997 slaying of rapper Notorious B.I.G. The records, which contain FBI files spanning eight years, come from a civil rights probe the bureau launched into the killing.

The records were posted on the FBI's website and are heavily redacted.

The New York rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was gunned down outside the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997, as he was leaving a music industry party.

Who killed Wallace, also known as Biggie Smalls, has remained a mystery. At the time of his death, he was one of the biggest stars in rap music. His slaying came on the heels of the fatal shooting of another marquee rapper, Los Angeles-based Tupac Shakur.

Various theories have linked the two homicides, neither of which has been solved. Some believe the two men were killed as part of a rivalry between East Coast and West Coast rappers, or between their two music labels at the time, Marion "Suge" Knight's Death Row Records, based in Los Angeles, and New York-based Bad Boy Entertainment.

A federal judge last year dismissed a wrongful-death suit filed by Wallace's rapper’s family against the city of Los Angeles charging that officials covered up police involvement in the rapper's slaying.

RELATED:

Read the FBI documents on Biggie Smalls

-- Robert Faturechi