Hollywood vs Reality: The Dark Truth Behind Big L's Murder

On February 15, 1999, Harlem rapper Big L — Lamont Coleman — was shot nine times on West 139th Street, steps from where he grew up. He was 24, a member of Diggin' in the Crates, and on the verge of a major deal. His murder was never solved. This documentary compares the Harlem that Hollywood showed in films like Ernest Dickerson's Juice (1992), starring Tupac Shakur, with the real streets Big L came from. We look at the arrest and release of Gerard Woodley, the theories tied to his brother Donald Phinazee, and why the case went cold. Using news reports, interviews and the public record, we separate the movie version of Harlem from what actually happened on 139th Street. Subscribe to Bloody Reports for new true crime documentaries every week. #TrueCrime #HipHopHistory #BigL