Watch Gravy Play Biggie in "Tupac's Dead" Scene From "Notorious"

Wondering how portly Brooklyn MC Jamal "Gravy" Woolard looks attempting to portray the most famous portly Brooklyn MC of all time, the Notorious B.I.G.? There've been a bunch of clips from the upcoming biopic Notorious floating around the Web, but here's a particularly high-voltage one: it's Biggie breaking the news of Tupac Shakur's death to his own mom, Voletta Wallace. We're a little meh so far, but what do you think? Is it like Eminem in 8 Mile, 50 Cent in Get Rich or Die Tryin' or Method Man in How High?

When Rolling Stone spoke to Woolard about the film — which was named Hot Biopic on our annual Hot List — he detailed the intense boot-camp-like training he received for the film at Julliard, where he dove into method-acting techniques and had cotton balls stuffed in his mouth to learn better diction. In Notorious, director George Tillman Jr. gives viewers a crash course on Christopher Wallace. The movie begins with the Brooklyn MC's youth and quickly leads to his eventual life as Kwest, the hustler who also raps, who then becomes full-time MC, the Notorious B.I.G. Newcomer Woolard stars alongside Angela Bassett (What's Love Got To Do With It), Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher) and Anthony Mackie (She Hate Me).

For more on the rapper's still-unsolved murder (he was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in L.A. on March 9, 1997), check out these investigative reports:

• The Unsolved Mystery of the Notorious B.I.G
• The Murder of the Notorious B.I.G.

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Song Stories

“Time to Pretend”

MGMT | 2008

Listening to MGMT’s breakthrough song, one might interpret it as being about the excesses of rock stardom, but it’s actually about the duo’s pet praying mantis. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone they got the idea from the insect's jerky movements. The mantis died, but the two bandmates kept the egg sack and allowed the hundreds of eggs to hatch. “We tried to name them all, but they died after a day,” said Goldwasser, with VanWyngarden chiming in, “But the praying mantis dance inspired us.”

More Song Stories entries »

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