This biopic about the legendary rapper Notorious B.I.G. brings nothing new to the genre and plays it pretty safe with it’s main characters history, but the result is still an entertaining look at the man’s rise to fame.
‘Biggie’ was born Christopher Wallace, and he was raised by a single mother in Brooklyn where he wasn’t allowed out of the house much. The neighborhood is full of drug peddlers of all ages and Christopher’s mom, Voletta, kept him inside to study and with a hope to keep him away from that life. Christopher was a successful student and but the street scene tempted him and before you knew it, Wallace was peddling coke and other drugs on the corner like many other kids his age. Biggie, as he was know becoming known, would always freestyle with his buddies and even got a decent amount of street cred after verbally beating down the local freestyle champ, but before he can really impress anyone else with his rhymes he is sent to jail for two years due to his “job” where he begins to write and craft even more songs and lyrics for his eventual arrival. Once out, Biggie is introduced to Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs who says he can show him an opportunity to make it big, and outside a mis-step here or there by both parties, their story together began. [Read more...]