5 Reasons Why You’ve Gotta See the Movie Notorious
A few years ago, I started dating younger men. Throughout my life I have always been more drawn to men who were 5-10 years older than me, but as I hit my thirties a strange thing happened…those youngstas started getting kind of sexy.
Anyway, I guess what comes with the territory when you start dating someone younger is the fact that they are often not going to be hip to the obvious things about life that you just take for granted.
Examples:
Thriller is the best record of all time.
Michael Jordan is the best basketball player of all time.
and
Notorious B.I.G. is the greatest rapper of all time…
I actually had a blow out debate 3 years ago with my tenderoni at the time, and he REFUSED to believe what I told him. In his mind, Tupac was the greatest rapper of all time because he had more fans, he was an actor and a rapper, and he represented that T.H.U.G. life mentality that so many inner city males can identify with. We ended up spending about 2.5 hours on the phone engrossed in this debate until finally he admitted that he hadn’t listened to many of Biggie’s songs outside of the radio friendly cuts that everyone knows. I told him to go research what I’m talking about and hit me up afterward. A week later, the king was crowned.
For those of you that were not around when Biggie was out or who were too young to listen to him, here are my top 5 reasons why you have to go see NOTORIOUS.
1) Biggie is the greatest hip hop lyricist of our time. I know, I know…there are a bunch of you who want to debate with me, but upon closer inspection you will find what I am saying is true.
Biggie had amazing delivery and took you into stories that made you visualize what was happening. In his song Warning, B.I.G. alternates between two different characters as he acts out his homeboy warning him of a plot to rob him initiated by some neighborhood cats. He took us on an emotional voyage as he talks about thoughts of insecurity, remorse and pain in his song Suicidal Thoughts. His innovative delivery and multiple styles made even the most ruthless things sound dope. In his song Playa Hater, he channeled a Frank Sinatra era lounge singer and sang:
“You know, we need this money
And you, yes baby you, should just roll with me
Let’s go off, together
On this robbin spree, we’ll make money”
‘Nuff said.
2) The movie NOTORIOUS takes you on a voyage back to the ’80s. For those of you who were born sometime in the 80s or even (gasp) the ’90s, this movie gives you a unique glimpse into life in Brooklyn, NY in the 80s. Transport to a time when B-boys walked around the streets with ghetto blasters on their shoulders and every other block had a hip hop cipher where MC’s could battle each other lyrically for street cred. (Far cry from these days where you get shot in the name of street credibility).
3) You get to see Derek Luke do his Puffy style minstrel dance. If that isn’t worth the price of admission, I don’t know what is!
4) A lot of people are confused about the dynamic that existed between Biggie and Tupac, but this movie does a great job of breaking down the fact that they were boys before all of the east coast, west coast drama broke out across the country. The movie highlights the event that caused their relationship to shatter and provides sheds an interesting light on how Biggie felt about the beef.
5) The movie shows us how we need to look beneath the surface in our dealings with others. If you listened to Biggie‘s lyrics someone might say that he was an angry, violent criminal. However, this movie reveals other sides of Biggie – his loving side, his life struggles and his challenges. I think that we can all relate to having multiplicity in our personalities. People are often nice, mean, loving, hateful, vengeful, forgiving…all at the same time. This movie provides that mirror to show us this phenomenon and the fact that at any given moment we can choose to focus and take another path.
All in all, I say the movie is a must see! Check it out and see what all the hype is about.
February 6, 2009 at 3:58 pm
I once got into a debate with a youngsta about who was better Pac or Biggie. As a “package”, you could say Pac was a better artist. He had appeal, charisma, people loved him. This is more to do with image and persona, but when it comes to lyricism – there is no competition, Biggie is by far, I mean mountains of China far, better than Biggie.
A good lyricist can spit sick and concise, I asked him to spit one line of Pac’s that demonstrates this, he couldn’t think of one. I gave him a line by Biggie, 6 words – [i]“You be more gone than freeman”[/i]
It’s so tragic we only got 2 albums from such a talent, I mean really think about it, imagine a 3rd Biggie album, 4th, 5th… I think he had room to improve and would have grown as an artist. Grown more sicker than Sycamore.
RIP BIG
February 8, 2009 at 7:22 pm
wow…now it’s a “must see” movie, huh? before you were tryin to downplay the flick and said it was “just aiiight.” ok, I see. got you. the truth finally comes out….
February 15, 2009 at 10:53 pm
LOL…hey. I never said don’t see it. I wish it got a little deeper but all in all it was good!
B Majnun, you know what’s up. I like that… Yes, it is crazy to think about what could have been had he lived.