No fire in this tale about one of rap music's most notorious shooting stars.

Story

Starting near the end of his short 24-year life and then told in flashback, this film version of Christopher "Notorious B.I.G" Wallace's (Jamal Woolard) rapid rise from the streets of Brooklyn to fame is told in standard-issue Hollywood biopic style. We see this Catholic honors student (played by his real life son, Christopher Jordan Wallace) become a teenage drug dealer and accidental father before a chance…

You can almost hear the Notorious B.I.G. sneering his trademark "get a grip, motherfuckers" at those who think the big thing about his life is the unsolved 1997 murder that ended it. Notorious is not a whodunit. The LAPD, having famously screwed up the case, still hasn't nailed the killer in the Chevy who pulled up alongside the SUV that chauffeured the 300-pound Biggie from a Los Angeles party and pumped four bullets into his chest. At 24, the Brooklyn kid who morphed from crack dealer into rap…