Win with Notorious!!!

You may have read and heard a lot about Notorious, a biopic based on the life and death of famous Brooklyn rapper Christopher Wallace, also known as Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smallz, over the past few months. I've just had a pleasure of watching it this afternoon, and surprisingly enjoyed it a lot.

I say surprising because I had reservations about the actors selected to play the respective characters. Although I don't doubt some of their acting abilities at all, I wasn't sure how they would fair knowing or being familiar with the people their characters are based on. I have to give it to the debutante, Jamal Woolard, who gave a reasonable portrayal of Biggie. Veteran actress Angela Basset takes the cake for her role as Biggie's mother Vollata Wallace, and there actually are no surprises there. Biggie's real son with singer Faith Evans, Christopher Jordan Wallace, did a great job playing his father from about age 8 to early teens. A young lady who blew me over was Naturi Naughton (who used to be with the group 3LW) who gave a great performance as Bigg's jump off Lil' Kim. There were a few reports about how Lil' Kim didn't like how she was portrayed in the film, so I have to give it to Naturi under the circumstances.

Two of my favourite actors, Derek Luke and Anthony Mackie, are also on the bill, playing Sean Combs (P. Diddy) and Tupac, respectively. Like I said before, knowing or being familiar with Diddy, I wasn't really sold on Derek's interpretation of his character. The same goes for Anthony Mackie, the resemblance to Tupac came across, but the actual mannerisms and how Tupac carried himself, was not impressive. Even the guy who plays Suge Knight, that ruthless nature of the Death Row leader we came to know didn't come across very well. I have to admit though that the casting of Antoinique Smith as Faith Evans was on point. The ladies look so much alike, only if Antoinique gave more in her performance.

Overall, Notorious was a good film, with lots of information for those who didn't know about how the West Coast versus East Coast rap beef began, as well as the fact that these two fallen stars were actually friends before all went wrong. This actually makes what transpired very sad, an emotion that distinctly comes across as you watch Notorious. Another noteworthy fact, and one that I gleefully applaud, is the use of the actors' real voices during the stints when they were singing or rapping, well the lead vocals anyway.

Notorious opens at Nu Metro cinemas across the country next Friday, 20 Februray 2009.

To make your Notorious viewing experience even more unforgettable, Nu Metro and YEAHBO.DOT.NET are giving away 5 Notorious Soundtrack albums to 5 lucky winners. All you have to do is answer the following simple questions:

1). What is the name of P. Diddy's record label that Notorious B.I.G. was signed under? 2). What is the name of the second album that Notorious B.I.G was about to release when he died in 1997?

Send your answers to yeahbo@yeahbo.net, together with the following details:

Name and surname;
Contact number;
E-mail address;
Your age;
The city where you live; and
Tell us how you learnt about YEAHBO.DOT.NET or yeahbodotnet.blogspot.com.

Good luck. And enjoy Notorious.