I finally saw the film "Notorious".
Big Up to George Tillman. The story, the characters, the look of the film, the whole essence of how they told the story of Christopher George Latore Wallace aka Notorious BIG/Biggie Smalls was simply well-done. The film gave me pause to remember those days in our industry.
The scene where Puffy starts Bad Boy and they had the postcard with the baby boy... I think I still have the card and even an invitation to a party/showcase at Jack the Rapper...
I remember the Source Awards situation. But in the film, they didn't show the part when Snoop gets up and says "what? y'all don't have no respect for the west coast??" That was classic.
I remember that Puffy was a rising star in the Uptown Records camp...
I remember the party on the fateful night of March 9, 1997. I was invited by Vibe magazine and executives from Burrell Advertising and to this day, in my book, this party remains the hottest industry event ever. It was held at the relatively new Petersen Automotive Museum. That night was hot as people from all over the entertainment and media industry, surrounded by all sorts of automobiles - classics, exotics, race cars, antiques partied in celebration of the Soul Train Awards. It was so fly...
I saw Notorious BIG, sitting in a super VIP area(VIP within the VIP). I had never seen him before. I mean, up to that point I had seen and met a LOT of hiphop stars, many who have come and gone, but even at his meteoric rise, I had never seen this man. But there he was...Those glasses, sitting there chillin' obviously enjoying himself...
I remember the excitement in the air that BIG was coming to LA... The death of Tupac nearly seven months earlier had shocked and changed the consciousness of the HipHop community. and the notion of peace was finally the order of the day... It was a good thing that Notorious was coming out...
I remember that the advance copy of Life After Death was in my collection but I had not played it yet.. seeing him reminded me that I need to catch up with my listening...
So there we were, chillin' at the industry's hottest party when the announcement came that the fire marshals were shutting the place down early... We exited, and I remember BIG's entourage were just a few feet behind me... I knew the area pretty well, so I went directly to my car, pulled out into the alley behind the museum and exited east. Got home, glowing from a great time and was really proud of our industry. I awoke the next morning, turned on my radio and was floored to learn that Notorious BIG was gunned down on the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax. I was tremendously affected by this news as I had just seen him....
The murder is one of the defining moments of music history and remains a cold case within the files of the LAPD. No one knows who killed Notorious BIG. I've seen the City struggle with this case for 12 years now and it is tragic that justice has not been served. Most reports imply that missteps in investigative procedure by the LAPD, coupled with links to Raphael Perez and Nino Durden, and other prominent figures in the LAPD Rampart scandal; are the central obstacles to solving the case.
The film taught me things about BIG I never knew. For instance I heard he and L'il Kim had were romantically linked, but I did not know it was that deep. I knew Faith was his wife and I remember the scandal of Tupac's alleged relationship with her. What I did not realize how badly he treated Lil Kim. Biggie's mother, Voletta Wallace said, in an interview at essence.com , that "I would love to speak to Lil’ Kim, because I need to ask more about this love relationship because I really didn’t like the way he treated her and I’m praying that that’s not it. Only she can answer those questions. She’s a sweet girl and I didn’t think she deserved to be treated the way he treated her, if that’s the case."
The film could have been a contrived production that sent fantastical images of the hiphop industry but instead I found the film to be believable, fascinating depiction of what was going on in the industry in hose days. The actors chosen to portray the real life characters in Biggie's life, were dead on. Jamal Woolard as Biggie, Natauri Naughton as Li'l Kim, Derek Luke as Puffy were all familiar ad believable.. The one in all of this was the masterful performance of Angela Basset as Voletta Wallace... She was awesome!!
I saw the film Notorious... and I remember!
Big Up to George Tillman. The story, the characters, the look of the film, the whole essence of how they told the story of Christopher George Latore Wallace aka Notorious BIG/Biggie Smalls was simply well-done. The film gave me pause to remember those days in our industry.
The scene where Puffy starts Bad Boy and they had the postcard with the baby boy... I think I still have the card and even an invitation to a party/showcase at Jack the Rapper...
I remember the Source Awards situation. But in the film, they didn't show the part when Snoop gets up and says "what? y'all don't have no respect for the west coast??" That was classic.
I remember that Puffy was a rising star in the Uptown Records camp...
I remember the party on the fateful night of March 9, 1997. I was invited by Vibe magazine and executives from Burrell Advertising and to this day, in my book, this party remains the hottest industry event ever. It was held at the relatively new Petersen Automotive Museum. That night was hot as people from all over the entertainment and media industry, surrounded by all sorts of automobiles - classics, exotics, race cars, antiques partied in celebration of the Soul Train Awards. It was so fly...
I saw Notorious BIG, sitting in a super VIP area(VIP within the VIP). I had never seen him before. I mean, up to that point I had seen and met a LOT of hiphop stars, many who have come and gone, but even at his meteoric rise, I had never seen this man. But there he was...Those glasses, sitting there chillin' obviously enjoying himself...
I remember the excitement in the air that BIG was coming to LA... The death of Tupac nearly seven months earlier had shocked and changed the consciousness of the HipHop community. and the notion of peace was finally the order of the day... It was a good thing that Notorious was coming out...
I remember that the advance copy of Life After Death was in my collection but I had not played it yet.. seeing him reminded me that I need to catch up with my listening...
So there we were, chillin' at the industry's hottest party when the announcement came that the fire marshals were shutting the place down early... We exited, and I remember BIG's entourage were just a few feet behind me... I knew the area pretty well, so I went directly to my car, pulled out into the alley behind the museum and exited east. Got home, glowing from a great time and was really proud of our industry. I awoke the next morning, turned on my radio and was floored to learn that Notorious BIG was gunned down on the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax. I was tremendously affected by this news as I had just seen him....
The murder is one of the defining moments of music history and remains a cold case within the files of the LAPD. No one knows who killed Notorious BIG. I've seen the City struggle with this case for 12 years now and it is tragic that justice has not been served. Most reports imply that missteps in investigative procedure by the LAPD, coupled with links to Raphael Perez and Nino Durden, and other prominent figures in the LAPD Rampart scandal; are the central obstacles to solving the case.
The film taught me things about BIG I never knew. For instance I heard he and L'il Kim had were romantically linked, but I did not know it was that deep. I knew Faith was his wife and I remember the scandal of Tupac's alleged relationship with her. What I did not realize how badly he treated Lil Kim. Biggie's mother, Voletta Wallace said, in an interview at essence.com , that "I would love to speak to Lil’ Kim, because I need to ask more about this love relationship because I really didn’t like the way he treated her and I’m praying that that’s not it. Only she can answer those questions. She’s a sweet girl and I didn’t think she deserved to be treated the way he treated her, if that’s the case."
The film could have been a contrived production that sent fantastical images of the hiphop industry but instead I found the film to be believable, fascinating depiction of what was going on in the industry in hose days. The actors chosen to portray the real life characters in Biggie's life, were dead on. Jamal Woolard as Biggie, Natauri Naughton as Li'l Kim, Derek Luke as Puffy were all familiar ad believable.. The one in all of this was the masterful performance of Angela Basset as Voletta Wallace... She was awesome!!
I saw the film Notorious... and I remember!
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