Notorious

For those who don't know, Notorious, is the newly released biopic to the greatest rapper of all time, The Notorious B.I.G. it was released in theaters on January 16th, 2009, this last Friday. The movie itself received mostly favorable reviews from the critics and generally good to great reviews from common viewers. The movie runs just under two hours long, a definite choice for fans, haters, and people who don't even know who Biggie even was.

I personally feel the movie really captured the important events in Biggie's life. His albums release, his feud with Tupac Shakur, and his relationships with various women. His life was quite short; but in the mere 24 years that he lived, he rose from the lowly bottoms of Brooklyn to the Gucci wearing, champagne sipping tycoon that he was just before his death. Notorious does an outstanding job of making its viewers feel the emotions that Biggie was going through at various times in his life. The man who starred as Biggie himself, Jamal Woolard, was very well chosen. More than once, I found myself thinking that I was looking at the REAL Biggie Smalls, not an entirely different person. Woolard is extremely skilled at capturing certain qualities and characteristics that Biggie was known for, such as his deep, husky voice, his elitist, "I'm the king of the world" look that defined Biggie in his later years, everything, this was my biggest concern going into this movie, and I was very pleasantly surprised.

Even all of the supporting actors did excellent jobs in capturing the identities of the characters they portrayed. Anthony Mackie (Tupac Shakur) definitely takes the cake for this one though. When I first heard that it was going to be Mackie that took the role of Tupac, I was quite disappointed, I thought the director was going to scrutinize the entire country until he found some unknown, underground Tupac lookalike that was just waiting for a role like this. I honestly couldn't find ANY connections between the real Shakur, and the actor. But, when I first saw Mackie on the big screen, for a second, I thought that they were actually just playing a video of a real event, with the real Tupac, much like how many parts of the funeral were real, taped events. But after much, much, extraneous scrutiny, I realized that I was actually looking at Anthony Mackie. He was also able to portray that "I don't give a &^$#" personality that Tupac had really, really well.

The actual movie had very few flaws in it, all of the events were accurate, there wasn't any added fluff or anything, these events are all pretty much exactly how they took place. While I wasn't exactly ever there for any of these events, I am quite knowledgeable on what happened through various sources including interviews with the actual people. I didn't think that they portrayed anyone unfairly, unlike what Lil' Kim had to say. In an interview, she stated that she felt that she was being unfairly and inaccurately portrayed in this film. The claims that she wasn't quite as... dirty as she looked in the movie. I can understand that she might be holding on to some bitter memories of her with Biggie, but he portrayal was far from "inaccurate."

I would personally recommend this movie to anyone and everyone, so long as they are over the age of seventeen. There are some scenes in this film that many parents would consider inappropriate for their kids to watch, so consider this fair warning. But with that aside, like I've stated before, fans of Biggie Smalls, haters of Biggie, and people who have never even heard of him are all encouraged to watch this movie. It really clears up a lot of fog that used to surround Biggie's life, a lot of people think he's just another rapper, same as anyone else, but they are overlooking a lot of events that made this man into what he was, inside and outside of the studio.

Biggie's Legacy

Biggie's untimely death did not at all stop his supreme reign over the rap game. He is celebrated as one of the best MCs of all time. He reached #3 on MTV's list of top ten rappers, both of his albums have earned a spot on the 500 Best Albums of All Time. Many influential hip- hop magazines have dubbed him the Greatest of All Time. His name appears on lists of best rappers more times than any other rapper dead or alive, including Tupac, Jay z, and Lil' Wayne (if you consider this guy a rapper). Its not uncommon for speakers to be blasting Biggie's lyrics before a big concert or award show. Biggie is also famous for having his lines quoted by many, many artists. Primarily Jay z, 50 Cent, and Lil' Wayne.


There is ten parts to this video, all of them containing samples of Biggie's lyrics, and then the same lyrics rapped by other artists.

Biggie's style of rapping will always be remembered and it will always remain original. He had a husky, powerful tone that he would use alongside his ability to overlap many rhymes in one verse to stun his listeners. He rapped in many styles, he would sometimes even sing in a falsetto tone like in his songs, "Playa Hater", and "Come On." He was featured with the group "Bone- Thugs and Harmony" who are famous for their extremely rapid style of rapping, and Biggie rapped to that style better than they did, according to most people. Biggie's beats were mostly simple repetitive beats that really captured the mood of the content of the song. Sometimes he would have a few seconds at the beginning of a song in order to get the listeners in the mood.

Biggie was also respected greatly for his diversity in the themes of his rap. In Ready to Die, he portrayed himself as a common hustler, doing whatever it took to get to the top and how he finally reached the top. In Life After Death, Biggie portrayed himself as a ferocious drug lord, a mafia leader. He wrote romance, comedy, drug dealings, autobiographical stories, everything. But perhaps the area where he was most renowned, was his story telling ability. A very large portion of his songs were stories of his past, back when he dealt drugs, and would commit petty crimes to get money. Famous titles include, "Warning", "Somebody's Gotta Die", and "Niggas Bleed." He could put a story into rap better than any other MC could ever come close to, and everyone knows it.

This guy was a beast.

King of New York

Christopher George Latore Wallace, AKA Biggie Smalls, the Notorious B.I.G., Big Poppa, Frank White, the King of New York.

If you don't know who this is, you should get your life reassessed. He was only the greatest rapper of all time. Greatest lyricist, best flow, best rhymes, best delivery, just the greatest of all time, or GOAT as you might see him referred to as.

Biggie was born in 1972, right in the heart of Brooklyn, NY. He had the stereotypical childhood and early years of every rapper, his dad left him to be raised by his mom, dropped out of school at an early age even though he excelled at school, he was a natural at poetry and public speaking. Well maybe not the stereotypical life of EVERY rapper, I doubt some of them these days even know how to read... After he dropped out of school, he joined the crack game and would rap with all of his friends on street corners. Eventually he got caught by the cops and sent to a penitentiary, all the money he collected from dealing drugs, was used for bail.

A few years later, he got discovered by the infamous P. Diddy, who signed him to Bad Boy Records, where Biggie started working on his debut album, Ready to Die.. This album was released in 1994, and it was a HIT. It went 4x Platinum, which is a very, very big deal if you don't know. It featured many classics including, "Big Poppa", "Juicy", and "Warning." This album was received extremely positively by the rest of the world, and it instantly set new scales for rappers. Immediately, rappers started quoting his genius lines in their own songs, featuring him in songs, and lots more got jealous and started feuds with him.

Which brings us to the next important event in Biggie's life, his ridiculous, pointless beef with none other than his lifelong friend, Tupac Shakur. Supposedly the beef (this is just another word for feud)started when Tupac accused Biggie of being involved in the robbery of 'Pac's jewelry, if you don't know, rappers really value their "bling". Tupac then started to make really insane, outrageous diss songs toward Biggie, and the notorious East vs. West beef started, that ultimately led to the death of both of these legends. Biggie did not openly say anything about Tupac, instead he would use his metaphorical, subliminal style of rap to attack Tupac. Many say this was "cowardly" on his part, but in many interviews Biggie stated that he didn't want to increase this beef between the east and west coasts. Which was sincere, because he had enough lyrical skill to grind Tupac into dust if he wanted to, and everyone knows it.

In 1997, Biggie released his second, and last, studio album, Life After Death. This album was a lot different than his first one, which had a more light hearted, funny theme to it. Life After Death was darker, more serious, and dealt with much more serious topics. He rapped about many things that dealt with mafioso stories of his past, robberies he's committed, and he also released several titles that were all subliminal diss songs toward other rappers that quite frankly, shut them up. A good example of a song like this is "Kick in the Door." Biggie had a paranoia problem, by the time he released Life After Death, he pretty much thought that the world was out to get him. He released very dark titles such as, "You're Nobody 'Till Somebody Kills You", and "My Downfall." But even though these songs showed that he was suffering from lots of problems in his life, they failed to do anything else but show this man's lyrical ability and profound rapping skill that remains unmatched.