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

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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