The family of the late Notorious B.I.G., aka Christopher Wallace, is presenting evidence they hope shoots down last week's Los Angeles Times story claiming Biggie was to blame for the September 7, 1996 Las Vegas drive-by that left Shakur mortally wounded.

The Times story, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Chuck Philips, floated the theory that Biggie met in Vegas with members of the Compton-based Crips on the night Shakur was gunned down and provided the gangbangers with the murder weapon as well as a $1 million bounty for the hit.

Having already called the report "patently false" and threatening legal action, Wallace's family issued a statement late Tuesday saying they now have incontrovertible proof that the hip-hopster was at a New York studio and then at his New Jersey home the night of the attack.

Lawyers for the family released to MTV a digital audiotape of a song called "Nasty Girls"--purportedly recorded during that September 7 session--along with documents indicating Biggie was at Daddy's House, the studio owned by Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, whose Bad Boy Entertainment label put out Wallace's records.

Other Biggie associates have also come to the dead rapper's defense.

Biggie's former manager, Wayne Barrow, claims he and the rap star were in the studio that whole weekend in 1996. "No way was he in Las Vegas," Barrow is quoted in the statement issued by Wallace's estate.

Backing him up was fellow rapper Lil' Cease of Junior M.A.F.I.A., who says she was with Biggie at his house in Teaneck, New Jersey, and that the paper "got it wrong."

"After his recording session, I was with him later on in his home watching the championship boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon," Lil' Cease recounts in the Wallace-issued statement. "He was with me all the time."

Biggie's mother, Voletta Wallace, told MTV News that she felt like her "son was just murdered [all over again]" when she heard the paper had accused her son of being a conspirator in Shakur's killing.

And the rapper's widow, Faith Evans, said in an MTV interview, "We feel that it's this type of irresponsible journalism and widespread untruths that lead to people losing their lives sometimes. We don't want it to continue to happen. It's just not right. Sometimes there is some truth in things you read and things you see on TV. This is a case where it's just not true."

Evans said that Biggie cried the night he heard Shakur was shot. She noted that he was fearful of all the violence going on around this "so-called beef" with his rival. The two repeatedly dissed each other in interviews and song. Shakur also blamed Biggie for an earlier attack that left Shakur shot outside a recording studio.

Also siding with B.I.G.'s family was West Coast rapper-actor Ice Cube, who called the Times' allegations preposterous and told Doug Banks' syndicated radio show on Tuesday he was so angered by the article that he wanted to burn the newspaper.

"Neither one of them wanted to kill each other or had anything to do with each other's death," Ice Cube said, adding that maybe it was also time for his fellow rappers to stop all the trash talk. "When we start arguing in public, that's the perfect time for someone to kill us and blame each other."

In a separate statement, the family of Orlando Anderson, the Crips gangmember the Times fingered as the trigger man in the Shakur killing, denied he had any involvement in the crime.

"Orlando Anderson did not murder Mr. Tupac Shakur," the statement read. "He did not accept money nor was he offered any money from Notorious B.I.G. nor anyone else to perform such a heinous crime." (Anderson was later murdered in an unrelated gang incident.)

The veracity of the Times report has also been questioned by the Las Vegas homicide detectives in charge of Shakur's murder case.

Philips, meanwhile, stands by his story, noting that members of the Crips were the source of the accusations.

Biggie's family says they are speaking out because the rapper can't. He was gunned down in Los Angeles in March 1997 outside an after-party for the Soul Train Music Awards.

Despite lengthy investigations by police, both Tupac and B.I.G.'s murders remain unsolved.