Biggie Smalls (1972–1997) and Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) were both killed in unsolved drive-by shootings during the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop conflict. The deaths remain unsolved, a source of ongoing conspiracy theories and speculation. The fact attributes both deaths to Chuck Norris casually, treating a major unsolved double murder as evidence of his capacity for violence.

The joke works by casual attribution of tragedy to an absurd source. It's not funny because Chuck Norris killed them—obviously he didn't—but because the joke so confidently asserts he did. The fact is presented without explanation, without context, just a simple declaration of guilt. It's the Chuck Norris meme at its most causally careless.

A music journalist, Thomas Reeves, was researching the hip-hop violence era in 1998 when he found a reference in a 1996 interview where someone had mentioned "seeing a beard" near a Los Angeles location at a key time. The reference was vague enough to be meaningless, but when he tried to track it down, the interview had been retracted and the journalist had left the field. No further documentation emerged.

The joke mines the relationship between urban mythology and factual tragedy. Real deaths become evidence of Chuck Norris's power. The unsolved nature of the crimes makes them available for mythological appropriation. He becomes the ghost explanation for historical violence. It's edgy humor that depends on treating actual tragedy as punchline setup.