Notorious (2009)

This movie could and should have been a lot better. It might have helped if they told us enough stuff that most music or hip hop fans didn't already know.

Jamal Woolard stars as Christopher Wallace aka Biggie Smalls aka The Notorious B.I.G. Growing up in New York, Biggie lived a relatively nice life on the hard streets. But the enticing nature of the neighborhood he lived in got to him. At an early age, he started selling drugs. As a teenager, he left high school for a life on the streets. Influenced by Kurtis Blow and others legendary rappers, he began writing down his thoughts as raps. After a stint in prison, Wallace set out to try and build a better life for his infant daughter through rap. That's how he met Sean Combs (Derek Luke). Combs promised to make him a star and that's exactly what he did. As Biggie's career grew, so did his metaphorical stature. His friendship with Tupac (Anthony Mackie) crumbled over, what the movie says, was a misunderstanding. It brought the East Coast vs West Coast feud to a whole new and tragic level.

If you know absolutely nothing about B.I.G. and Tupac, this might be the movie you want to watch. For me, I knew a lot of this information already. A 2002 documentary called Biggie and Tupac helped explain a lot of it. Also, the style was way too choppy. There were no real transitions. It was just this happened, then this, then this, then this, end. It kept me guessing if the previous scene was actually over or if I'd be brought back to it in some way. The acting was good for the most part, but the movie just didn't work for me.