We Are... No-No-No-Notorious

Life After Death
written by JusHH

It’s 2009, I’ll be 27 in March and frankly as I near 30, I see the world differently than ever before. My relationships with people, my career path and my interests have all changed over time. Even though I’m still Hip-Hop to the core, some of my views have a more of a mature twist. But for 2 hours this past Saturday, I was a kid years old all over again. Trapped somewhere between 1994 and 1997, it was the closest thing to time traveling that I’d ever experience. If I was Marty McFly, then the makers of “Notorious” were my Doc Brown.

This isn’t an official movie review – its more of a testimonial; a short story of how a movie managed to put my memories and emotions on TiVo. Gravy, the emcee pegged to portray the rap legend, had a big (pun intended) task in front of him. How do you capture the life of such a recognizable legend? Every written account stated that Gravy not only felt privileged to play one of his idols but he worked extremely hard to get it right. He deserves to get his props because after about 10 minutes, I felt like I was watching Christopher Wallace. It felt so real. I was that kid in Junior High watching all of those old interviews on The Box and seeing the pictures in the magazines.

Whenever they would drop one of his songs, I felt like I was hearing them again for the first time. They all had a sense of “newness” and “freshness” as if they weren’t 13 year old songs. At times I forgot that I was in a movie theater and not a concert as I fought the urges to recite “Warning” at the top of my lungs. (“Who the f**k is this? Paging me at 5:46…) Seeing those classic images of BIG in his black leather suit that read “Poppa” on the back was like Déjà vu.

They also did a great casting job with Lil’ Kim and Faith and brought all of their songs to life as well. All of those Vibe magazine articles and rumors that we all argued about on the block were coming to life right in front of my eyes. The frustrations that I had when I tried to figure out why people were blowing the “east coast/ west coast” drama out of proportion were just as real now as they were then. I cycled between memories and hindsight as I enjoyed the rawness of “Hit Em Up” while at the same time wanting Pac to slow down and chill before it was too late. The same thing happened when I saw that we were slowly drifting into 1997 and that this movie was eventually going to have to end. You wanted to scream at the screen and warn BIG not to go to LA or not to get in that passenger seat…

But it didn’t work. He went to LA. He got into that seat. The same hurt that I felt 12 years ago, I felt again. All of the “what if’s” and “I wonder what’s” came to mind and I missed him all over again. So when the movie ended and I blinked, I was back in 2009. Although I once again had to get used to not having one of my favorite rappers, I remembered the very thing that those people who attended his funeral realized, BIG will live forever through his music. So thank you to everyone who put this movie together for allowing me to get lost in my memories. And to those who are still deciding whether to go to the theater or not, remember that it’s not about watching a movie – it’s about being able to press rewind on your own life and just escaping. “Notorious” is a must see.

“And if you don’t know, now you know… you know.”