The film ‘Notorious’ about the life and death of rap superstar “The Notorious B.I.G.” otherwise known as Biggie Smalls stars up and coming actor Jamal Woolard as well as well known actors Angela Bassett as Voletta Wallace Biggie’s mother, and Derek Luke as producer and entrepreneur Sean “Puffy” Combs. The cast also includes Naturi Naughton of the music group 3LW as rapper Lil’ Kim, Antonique Smith as Biggie’s wife Faith Evans, Marc John Jefferies as Lil’ Cease; Biggie’s friend as well as member of the group Junior M.A.F.I.A., Edwin Freeman as Mister Cee, Anthony Mackie as Tupac Shakur and Dennis L.A. White as Damion “D-Roc” Butler. The film is directed by George Tillman Jr., and written by Reggie Bythewood and Cheo Hodari Coker.
(Image courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures)
The film accomplishes the feat of showing how a young man from Brooklyn named Christopher Wallace who was raised in a crime filled environment would become an icon who would influence young people for generations to come through his songs of ambition, struggle, power, and success. The storyline also serves to help the audience get a feel of who the Notorious B.I.G. was behind his rap persona. Even though the film is written in a third person perspective the film accomplishes this task, by allowing the story to be told by Biggie Smalls himself as he serves as narrator throughout the film, helping the audience get a sense of his inner thoughts and feelings.
Most of the film is set in the 1990’s and the audience gets to feel how someone with Biggie’s upbringing could turn to the life he lead. Abandoned by his father at a young age, growing up without a male role model, and being surrounded by a crime riddled environment that promised power and notoriety in the eyes of young Christopher Wallace, seemed all too enticing. But he slowly realized that he had a special gift with the power of his words that could touch millions, and ultimately reflects on the direction that his life is going in, which seems headed for a dead end; so Christopher strives to find a new way of getting power while getting his message across to people across the nation who struggled day in and day out as he did. When he meets producer Sean ”Puffy” Combs (played by Derek Luke) his life changes, and he slowly evolves into the man that the world comes to know as Biggie Smalls aka The Notorious B.I.G. Actor Edwin Freeman who portrays Mister Cee in the film says, “Biggie was way ahead of his time, the things that he rapped about in his music is still being rapped about today.”
In the film we are introduced to three different sides of Notorious B.I.G., we see Christopher Wallace the family man and friend, Biggie Smalls who is the aspiring rapper and drug dealer, and finally the Notorious B.I.G. who is the rap superstar. These three personas illustrated by Woolard’s performance help make Biggie a humanistic character by not only pointing out his triumphs, but showing his downfalls as well, especially in how he handled his relationships with the various women in his life, Faith his wife, Lil’ Kim his on again, off again girlfriend and high school sweetheart Jan.
Woolard makes Biggie believable by not delivering Biggie Smalls as being a one sided character with a tough exterior, but a young man he had inner conflicts that ended up not being resolved by the end of his life, while showing how much of a true friend and family man Biggie was around his children. Derek Luke’s portrayal of Sean “Puffy” Combs leaves us with the image of a man who was determined to elevate himself to another level, while mentoring and inspiring Biggie. Naturi Naughton portrays Lil’ Kim as a young woman who is ambitious, but at the same time expresses deep hurt at the actions of her friend and lover Biggie Smalls. Antonique Smith as Faith comes off as the loving, but emotionally enduring wife, whom even though she loves Biggie at times she doesn’t feel as if she can deal with his ways. Angela Bassett’s portrayal of Voletta Wallace Biggie’s mother allows the audience to feel a sense of sympathy for a mother who not only lost her son in tragic circumstances, but one who had patience and love, even though lacking acceptance of her son’s lifestyle.
The film also gives us a view into the type of relationship Biggie Smalls had with rapper Tupac Shakur (played by Anthony Mackie) which started out as a friendship, but evolved into a feud known as the East-Coast, West-Coast rap war, which would ultimately end both of their lives. It leaves the audience with the feeling of was the whole situation that led up to the feud just a mere misunderstanding of an unfortunate incident, that was blown out of portion, but not the feeling that something corrupt was happening on Biggie Small's end. Mackie's portrayal of Tupac allows us to see how complex a man Tupac really was in terms of his attitude; but at the same time showing how he was an intelligent as well as a socially aware man whose life was also cut short way before his time.
I give the movie three out of four stars due to the nature of how the characters were portrayed, however what I feel was lacking in the film was that I would have liked for the writers to expand more on the friendship that Biggie Smalls and Sean “Puffy” Combs had, due to the fact that the movie mostly displays their business relationship rather than their personal friendship.
