DVD Review: Notorious
To say I’m a 90′s hip-hop fanatic would be an understatement. From 1989-1999, I was a bona fide hip-hop addict. Everyday after school in Junior High, I would run home, pop in my VHS tape and record my favorite videos from YO! MTV Raps. D-Nice, Ice Cube, M.C. Breed, De La Soul…I was into it all. My version of a DeLorean is by bringing back some of these classic jams. Especially the ones below. They all were captured at a particular moment in my life that holds a special place in my memory. It was a time when rap music had an innocence without being cheesy. Backpackers, militants, and the gangstas — they all had my suburban ear.
Then came the Suge Knight era of Death Row Records and Puff Daddy with the Notorious B.I.G. They took the innocence of the rap music message and made it too real.
Because of my love for this era of hip hop, I’ve been really reluctant to watch the Notorious B.I.G. biopic, Notorious. After watching Anthony Mackie’s brilliant performance in The Hurt Locker, I felt the urge to see how he portrayed Tupac Shakur.
We don’t learn anything new about Christopher Wallace aka Biggie Smalls. All we see are bits and pieces of aspects of is life – that we all knew already. Shouldn’t we learn more about the man himself? What made him tick? How did he become such a star? What really led to his shooting? Notorious is produced by his mother, Puff Daddy, and a few other people close to him. It might as well been called Saint Biggie because the view was so slanted, he came across more innocent than Mother Teresa.
Puff Daddy and Tupac are/were larger than life personalities. It’s almost impossible to replicate that. There was nothing in Derek Luke or Anthony Mackie’s performance that personified either of these characters. Not only did they muck up the performance, they brought the film to a screeching halt. You see, Jamal Woolard (who played Biggie), actually was believable. He had the walk. He had the talk. And he had the “I can barely breathe because I’m so fat” gasps. I felt that I was watching Biggie. But the extreme faults and bad acting overshadowed the one positive (and toughest to pull off) aspect of the film – depicting the Notorious B.I.G.
For those who were avid rap fans during the Death Row vs. Bad Boy Records days, don’t let your nostalgia get the better of you. There’s great music in the film because of the source material. It’s a shame they couldn’t produce an effective film out of such a powerful story. Over time, maybe someone can create a less biased and more real account of the these enigmatic characters.
If you want to check out a great documentary about this hip hop rivalry, check out Nick Broomfield’s documentary, Biggie and Tupac. Until then, consider yourself saved.
