THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G. Bigger Than Life

For
both casual and devoted fans, the movie will serve as an intimate
glimpse into the short, but complex life of Biggie. Detailing his rise
to stardom alongside Diddy (played by Derek Luke), as well as his often
troubled relationships
with the women in his life — from his mother, to his former girlfriend
Jan, to Lil Kim and Faith — the most jarring moments in the film come
when the audience is faced with Big’s darker side. In fact, the way
that his relationship
with his protégée and lover, Lil Kim, plays out on-screen has been the
subject of controversy. Although Diddy, Ms. Wallace and Faith, all
played key roles in the production of the movie, Kim was noticeably
absent from the set during filming.

“I didn’t get a chance to meet [Lil Kim] or speak with her,” says former 3LW singer, Naturi Naughton, who portrays
the Queen Bee in the film.

Kim’s emotional battles with Biggie are depicted throughout the movie,
causing some of the most thought-provoking, viscerally moving moments
in the story. Kim’s insecurities were exposed through Tillman’s moving
narrative.

“I think that Kimberly Jones in the film experienced rejection
and being transformed into something to make her more beautiful or sexy
or just whatever the man that she was in love with was telling her to
be,” Naughton says.

In a recent interview with Hip Hop Weekly, the Queen Bee, who is often likened to a female version of Big, expressed
her anger with Faith and even Ms. Wallace over the way she’s portrayed in the movie.

“I’ve had enough and I’m about to expose them both … I’ve been quiet
for a long time,” she told the magazine. “I’m very disappointed in
Faith. There’s nothing Faith or Ms. Wallace could do to stop me from
reppin’ B.I.G. all day. I’m gonna always do that … It’s time for Ms.
Wallace to be exposed.”

Still, Tillman believes that Kim is painted accurately, even if it was difficult for her to come to grips with the portrayal.

“[Lil Kim] came, not to the set, but to the production office and
it was an interesting moment, but I was very happy I got a chance to
see her. I felt like as a filmmaker, my idea of who she was and her
thoughts and the way she moved were right on,” Tillman says.

While Kim remains unhappy with the film, Faith, Biggie’s
ex-wife and the mother of his second child, Christopher
Wallace Jr., played an integral role in the development of the movie.
Not only does her son portray Biggie as a kid, but she regularly spoke
with Antonique Smith, who plays her in the film.

“She married him for love,” Smith insists. “He was funny
and charming. She was completely in love with him.”

“What’s Beef…
Beef is when you need to gats to go to sleep…”

There’s no doubt that Biggie’s vivid storytelling, and his ability to
meld together words that bounced off of each other seamlessly, have
landed him in the top tier on nearly everyone’s rap list. Songs like
“10 Crack Commandments,” “The World is Filled …” and “Unbelievable”
helped redesign the blueprint for hip-hop mainstays like Jay-Z and Lil
Wayne.

“[Playing Biggie] was the opportunity of a lifetime,”
rapper-turned-actor, Jamal “Gravy” Woolard says. After a grueling
audition process, the fellow Brooklynite finally landed the role of
portraying one of his childhood heroes.

“I felt like what better role to play?” he continues. “You’re playing an iconic figure.”

But like most fallen music heroes, his music catalog and tragic death
are only a portion of what made him a legend. The notorious friendship,
fellowship and ultimate falling out with Tupac Shakur are as much a
part of Big’s legacy as his innovative musicianship. While rap fans and
media alike clamored to exploit the beef between the two dynamic
rappers,
the people close to Biggie and Pac always believed that the two would
eventually resolve the confusion that developed
into the most well-documented, sensationalized beef in music history.

“I never paid it any credence,” Wallace says of the distancing
between her son and Tupac, who was played by Anthony Mackie in the
movie. The film delves into the details of what happened between the
two, and the miscommunication that spawned an all-out bi-coastal war.

“One of [Biggie’s] friends approached me and asked if I’d [seen]
something in the magazine. He said Pac was saying certain things about
Christopher — that he had robbed him and shot him — and I was like,
‘really?’ ”

Wallace recalls a lost conversation that could have possibly ended the rivalry between the two headstrong stars.

“Tupac had called [in the midst of the beef] and Christopher
was out of town at a show or something and I said, ‘Christopher, Tupac
called.’ He said, ‘Mom why didn’t you give him my number, or take his
number!’ And I said, ‘But why would you want to do something like that
when he’s saying terrible things about you?’ And he said, ‘That’s why I
want the number.’ So I never really digested all of that. Tupac called
the house a lot. I never met him, I spoke to him, [and] I’d heard he’d
be downstairs — smoking, drinking, whatever they do. But when he died,
I read the magazine for the first time and I felt so bad for Afeni,
whom I correspond with alot.

“You’re a nobody till
somebody kills you.”

”On March 19, 1997, the people of Brooklyn were electrified.
As the fallen rap star’s hearse slowly glided through the streets that
raised him, the sounds of the hit that propelled him to stardom “Juicy”
echoed in the air. People danced. They cheered. They cried. And as the
wave of emotions swept over the onlookers, Voletta Wallace sat in the
limo, mourning her slain son. But even through the tears, there was a
sense of hope. She finally began to grasp just what her son meant to
the people who loved him most. And in that moment, she knew that his
memory would live on for years to come.