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.

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Star Trek' Is Crazy Good
• 
  TV 10 Shows to Watch This Summer
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter