Larger
voiceover. But in neighbourhoods such as
than life
in death
TheNotoriousB.I.G's
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watched by WendyIde
titan of hip-hop; a shooting
star w hose l yrical agility
ii\ ._ beli ed his l umberi ng physi cal
bulk—Christopher Wallace,
aka Biggie Smalls, aka the
Notorious B.I.G., achieved near-legendary
status in his short life and stellar career. A
violent melodrama of a life that fuelled
confrontational autobiographical home
truths, it was probably only a matter of
time before Smalls's mythic rise and tragic
death became the subject of a biopic. The
name Voletta Wallace—his mother—on
the list of producers should tell you a lot
about the film's uncritical and somewhat
lionising approach to the rapper's life.
"Everyone is born with a clean slate,"
muses the street philosopher B.I.G. in a
Tupac Shakurand eventually claimed
the one in which young Christopher grew both their lives is depicted as an external
up it doesn't stay clean for long. There's
something slightly disingenuous about
this sentiment. It seems to absolve Smalls's
crack-dealing, gun-toting early years,
writing them off as an inevitable
consequence of an impoverished •
childhood and releasing him from
culpability for his own choices.
Two non-professionals take on the
task of bringing Smalls back to life. His
own son, ChristopherJordan Wallace,
plays Biggie as a heavy-set kid on the
outside of cool, looking longingly in. It's a
poignant piece of casting. WallaceJr holds
his own against some questionable
directorial decisions, including the
nicotine brown colour palette that
signifies "the past" and a generic budding
talent scene in which Little B.I.G. shapes
his nascent versewhile sitting on a stoop
and wistfully watching the gangster kids
with their gold chains and newly bought
confidence.
But the bulk of the job falls to the
Brooklyn-born rapperJamal Woolard, a
young man who conveys B.I.G:s
considerable heft, his swaggering attitude
and his skill as a performer, but brings
precious little personal charisma to the
mix. Smalls's extraordinary whirlwind
courtship of the soul singerand label-mate
Faith Evans (they were married nine days
after they met at a photoshoot) is
dismissed in a couple of cursory scenes.
The opportunity to fall in love with Biggie,
as seen through Faith's eyes, is wasted.
The East Coast/West Coast feud that
pitted B.I.G. against his former friend
force that swept Smalls up with it, rather
than something he actively initiated.
Whether he was as blameless as this
portrait suggests we'll probably never
know. This is an MTV-friendly, slick and
styled production that tells one version of
a very murky story and does it with
plenty of energy but little imagination.
The one thing you can't argue with is the
music, which has lost nothing of its
infectious immediacy in the years since
B.I.G:s murder —shot from a car that
pulled up next to his vehicle at a traffic
tight—in l997.
Jamal Woolard as the rapper `Biggie"Smalls in the biopic
Notoriou,