It has been revealed that the Los Angeles Police Department is creating a new task force to look at the circumstance surrounding the death of Notorious BIG.

The renowned rap star was gunned down in 1997 but as yet the case remains unsolved. Despite no new evidence in the case coming to light, the Los Angeles Times has reported that the police have decided to set up the task force to tackle the issue.

It is understood that Notorious BIG's mother, Voletta Wallace, is bringing a claim against the Los Angeles Police Department in conjunction with other members of his family, arguing that rogue police officers were involved in the shooting of the rapper. Biggie Smalls, as the star was also known, was 24 when he was shot on leaving a late-night party at a museum in Los Angeles.

Notorious BIG, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was one of the most influential artists of the 1990s, but many in the hip hop world believe the star was killed as part of a revenge attack for the murder six months earlier of rival rapper Tupac Shakur. Tupac was killed in Las Vegas and some believe that the two murders were the culmination of a hip hop feud between two rival gangs.

This new task force, set up by police chief William Bratton, is understood to be aimed at investigating the potential link between the rival gangs and the murders. The force will consider in detail the possibility that Notorious BIG was shot by the Southside Crips gang. It will also look at suggestions that a hitman was hired by Marion "Suge" Knight, the owner of Tupac Shakur's record label, as revenge for the rival rapper's death. Knight has consistently denied any involvement in the murder.

Both Notorious BIG and Tupac have remained hip hop legends since their death, after being two of the genre's leading lights during their short lives. The police have so far failed to bring anyone to justice over Notorious BIG's killing, but the star's family clearly believe that this is in part to do with the compliance of some police officers.

It is thought that the task force's main aim will to be disprove the Wallace family's theory that the police were in some way linked to the hip hop legend's death, by getting to the bottom of the crime and uncovering once and for all who murdered Notorious BIG.