Notorious claims to tell the story of rapper Biggie Smalls AKA The Notorious B.I.G., who died in an as-yet unsolved drive-by shooting on March 9, 1997. But the film can't deal with the central question: should it celebrate Biggie's high-flying existence, or condemn it as a root cause of his demise?
Biggie Smalls Biopic
Christopher Wallace AKA Biggie Smalls AKA The Notorious B.I.G. (played by rapper Jamal Woolard) had a rough start: growing up in Bedford-Stuyvesant during the 1980's crack cocaine epidemic meant he either had to join one of the drug-dealing street gangs, or be terrorized by them. Wallace turned to drug-dealing – composing raps in his spare time – before inevitably getting caught and sent to prison.
After getting out, Biggie's raps caught the ear of aspiring music mogul Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs (Derek Luke) who signed him to the fledgling Bad Boy Records. Stardom, and its inevitable temptations, followed until the burgeoning East Coast, West Coast hip-hop rivalry claimed his life, and that of his former friend and nemesis, Tupac Shakur (Anthony Mackie).
Notorious Promotes Toxic Hustler Lifestyle
Director George Tillman Jr. (Soul Food) can't decide which way to go with this biopic: does he promote the gangster lifestyle that Biggie lived, or show how it destroyed him?
Yes, Biggie's crack peddling landed him in jail, but a sequence depicting him as a drug lord cements the image of a pistol-packing bad-ass counting wads of cash that often doesn't exist in real life (according to Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner's book Freakonomics, most drug dealers earn less than $4 an hour).
That same problem continues when depicting Biggie's life, after he became a star. Biggie may try to "be a man," but being a man in his world involves walking around with expensive designer clothes, guns, and enough gold to choke a horse. It's a morally vacuous image of manhood that espouses conspicuous consumption as a sole measure of success, and encourages the gun as a means of solving disputes.
In one voice-over, Biggie admits that, "We shoulda just sat down and talked it out, but it was too big."
That same attitude also promotes promiscuity as a measure of manhood. B.I.G. sires children with 3 different women, he maintains an on-again-off-again relationship with fellow rapper Lil' Kim (Naturi Naughton) and hesitates when asked to always be faithful to his bride, R&B diva Faith Evans (Antonique Smith). Naturally, the next sequence features Biggie on a hotel room phone with Faith, saying he loves her, while an unidentified woman strips in the background.
Another scene shows the mother of Biggie's first child accosting Faith, asking her when B.I.G. is going to "spend some time with his daughter."
These sequences (plus yet another scene where two half-naked women pleasure Biggie at a party) glamourize him as a playa, but doesn't adequately depict the emotional carnage that results. Given the rise of paternal absenteeism in the African-American community (even US President-elect Barack Obama came from a broken home), is it wise to promote Biggie's promiscuity as being desirable?
It doesn't help that Sean "P. Diddy" Combs is the executive producer of this film. Combs has made millions promoting the hip-hop gangsta attitude through Bad Boy Records and his Sean John clothing line, and he won't question the moral vacuum inherent to a marketing brand that's made him one of the richest men under the age of 40.
The Final Analysis
Notorious details the life of a talented child-man, set loose in an Id playground of bling, blunts and bitches. Unfortunately, that gangsta's paradise also contained the seeds of Biggie's destruction.
Although the film doesn't choose sides in the personal war that erupted between B.I.G. and Tupac – one that ultimately cost them their lives and was called "one of the sleaziest moments in rock" by Spin magazine – the flick also fails to show how a ridiculous notion of manhood fueled the feud past the point of any kind of peaceable reconciliation.
This problem ultimately leaves Notorious with a foul aftertaste. 4/10
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