A lawsuit brought
against Fox Television and XXL magazine by rapper Tyruss "Big Syke"
Himes was dismissed by a Superior Court judge in Los Angeles on Thursday (Jan.
18). Big
Syke filed the defamation lawsuit in July of 2006, claiming that Fox’s local television
station KTTV wrongfully accused him being involved in the unsolved murder of Christopher
"The Notorious B.I.G." Wallace, who was gunned down in March of 1997
near the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.The
rapper claimed that a July 2005 news report connecting him to B.I.G.’s murder
broadcast by Fox KTTV cost him a "lucrative" record deal with Treacherous
Records.Then,
in Oct. of 2005, Hip-Hop magazine XXL also ran a story that implied that
Big Syke helped Marion "Suge" Knight assemble a squad of hit men, who
then carried out the murder of B.I.G. in retaliation for the Sept. 1996 slaying
of Tupac Shakur. Big
Syke was a founding member of Tupac’s group Thug Life, which included Tupac’s
brother Mopreme, Macadoshis and Rated R. He
has denied all claims that he was involved in B.I.G.’s murder and that he had
"absolutely no involvement with the murder of Mr. Wallace." The
judge dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that the stories were protected under
the United States’ Constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech and
that Big Syke failed to prove that the media outlets acted maliciously, or with
reckless disregard to the truth."We
are appreciative of the time and effort the court put into reviewing the case,"
Himes’ attorney, Arthur G. Lesmez told the Associated Press. "We’re
understandably disappointed in the decision and we’re evaluating all of our options."