LOS ANGELES - Researchers have strengthened the investigation into the murder in 1997 of hip hop icon Biggie Smalls.
Citing two sources familiar with the investigation, CNN reports a working group formed by local and federal authorities are tracking information.
A source told CNN that the new data is discovered several months, but gave no further details because of active research, including the LAPD, the County Attorney's office in Los Angeles and the FBI.
Biggie - real name Christopher Wallace - was gunned down in Los Angeles while traveling in a Chevrolet Suburban after a music industry party on March 9, 1997.
Police said a lone gunman, described by witnesses as a black man in a suit and tie a bow, raised in a Chevrolet Impala, opened fire on the vehicle Biggie, where he was sitting in the passenger seat.
One of the most common theories in the killing has been what was an ongoing dispute between the East Coast and West Coast rappers, which centered around Bad Boy Records (New York) and Death Row Records (Los Angeles) .
Biggie and owner Sean "Puffy" Combs were the bad guy's face, both with very public battles with Death Row Suge Knight owner and principal artist Tupac Shakur, who was gunned down six months before Biggie.
Tupac's murder also remains unsolved.
Russell Poole, a former detective in Los Angeles, told CNN he believes Knight, despite serving a sentence for parole violation at the time of the murder of Biggie, was behind him.
"Suge Knight ordered the hit," he said. He also believes that the then head of security for Death Row Reggie Wright Jr., organized the assassination.
Knight and Wright have denied any involvement in the case.
Poole said he retired early from the LAPD, in part because he was frustrated to continue leading the murder of Biggie involving police officers working out of Death Row Records.
Bernard Parks was police chief of Los Angeles at the time of the murder, and serves as a city councilman now. He told CNN that any allegations of a police cover are "absurd."
"I never ignored an advantage that could have helped solve the murder," said Parks.
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