DVD
30 Second Bottom Line: This film, a Sundance Film Festival favorite, has documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield searching for who murdered two of the best known rappers of all time, Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G, and if those murders were somehow connected.
Story Line: The story of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G, a.k.a. Biggie Smalls, is one of the most famous stories of the 1990's; while their murders remain the most puzzling mystery in Hip Hop today. Director Nick Broomfield attempts to discover who could have committed the murders.
The film consists of three stages: one, the history of the childhood of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, with Broomfield talking to people who knew the two superstars while they were young. Two, Broomfield interviewing people who knew the rappers during their stardom; and an interview with Russell Poole, the ex-LAPD detective who resigned after being told not investigate further into who killed Biggie and Tupac. The third segment includes Broomfield's interview with Suge Knight while he was still in jail.
The story of the two Hip Hop legends is a classic tale. Tupac Shakur grew up in Baltimore and was trained in the performing arts before moving around the country, to California and New York. His mom was a Black Panther activist during Tupac's youth and was a crack addict as well. Biggie grew up in Brooklyn, with an extremely supporting school teacher mom and went to private school. Tupac Shakur, as a rap artist living in Los Angeles, embodied the West Coast gangster lifestyle, while Biggie glamorized the East Coast gangster lifestyle in New York City.
The two rappers remained close friends until Tupac Shakur was shot several times while in a New York recording studio. Shakur believed Biggie was responsible for the attempted murder, but Biggie claimed he had nothing to do with it. From that point on, hate and rivalry separated the two, and the relationship changed from friends to worst enemies, with Shakur representing the West Coast and Biggie representing the East.
The East vs. West rivalry was the most significant feud ever in rap history. It was this rivalry which eventually led Shakur to sign, in 1995, with Death Row record company founder, Suge Knight. Broomfield attempts to show in his documentary that it was Shakur's alliance with Death Row Records, which most likely led to the murders of both Biggie and Shakur.
Tell Me More About It: Biggie and Tupac, while a very interesting documentary, isn't as powerful or as good as Bowling for Columbine in the documentary genre. Yet the film stands on its own to raise very good questions about the murders of Biggie and Tupac, while even providing humor and insight into the confusing lives of both of the legendary artists.
While Broomfield hints at Suge Knight's possible involvement in both killings, the film seems to conclude that the death of Shakur was gang related, while Biggie's was committed by one of a few possible corrupt LAPD officers. In fact, the film probably has a more convincing thesis in the investigation of who killed Biggie Smalls. The director, Nick Broomfield, isn't afraid to ask bold questions, and amazingly somehow gets answers that the interviewed person probably wasn't originally planning on saying. His sly humor and British wit definitely helps carry the film through its three main stages and its triumphant finale.
As a fan of both of these artists, their public personas always blew their personal lives out of proportion. While Tupac Shakur embodied the gangster lifestyle, he was also one of the hardest working musicians and actors ever. In the five prime years of his career before his murder, it is estimated he recorded over 225 songs, as well as making seven movies. Biggie on the other hand recorded much less music than Shakur in his three professional years of rapping before his murder; yet was just as famous and loved in the music industry. Though in his music Biggie claimed to have survived days with nothing to eat and once sold drugs, people who knew him well denied both stories. Both artists died at the age of 25. Both artists had larger than life public images.
The best scenes of this movie, and probably the most intense, are the interviews with Shakur's ex-bodyguard, Kevin Hackie, Suge Knight, and Russell Poole. At one point Hackie claims to have evidence that would put away Biggie's murderer, but says he has been paid not to release it. The interview with Knight has Knight calling ex-Death Row label mate Snoop Dogg a `'snitch'' and a `'bitch.'' It's also interesting to note how Knight doesn't even mention Shakur or Biggie once in his speech to Broomfield. The interviews with ex- LAPD detective Russell Poole are also intriguing. What makes Poole so fascinating is that he dedicates his life to investigating the murders of Shakur and Smalls, even after discovering his own department in the LAPD was corrupt. Could this be rooted in the fact that Suge Knight's Death Row record company reportedly had at least 30 LAPD cops on the payroll?
The film also includes an array of other interesting characters; Biggie's Mom, Voletta Wallace, Shakur's high school acting coach, who claims Shakur was `'brilliant,'' Shakur's brother Mopreme, Shakur's father, ex- Shakur bodyguard Frank Alexander, and many others who knew both the artists.
What is wrong with Biggie and Tupac is that Broomfield seems to have worked so hard at this documentary, traveling to New York, Los Angeles, and Baltimore and even risking his own life to make it - yet he can't even get a good cameraman, good cinematographer or even decent equipment. At one point during the Knight interview, Broomfield runs out of sound and the cameraman seems to be so nervous he can't even stay still. I would also have liked to see more mention of Biggie's mentor and Bad Boy president, Sean Combs, a.k.a. P. Diddy, and more of Tupac's mother, who is barely even mentioned in the film, unlike Biggie's mom who is in a majority of the film. If all this had been improved, the film would have had a greater impact on me.
Recently, The Los Angeles Times printed an article declaring that Biggie was the one responsible for the killing of Tupac Shakur. The article was printed after this movie was made, and it is interesting to read that story and compare how different this movie and the story are.
Biggie and Tupac essentially contains everything seen in television's VHI Behind the Story of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G, with additional gripping interviews and an interesting and intelligent director. If you've seen Broomfield's other recent film, Kurt and Courtney, you should expect film making along the same lines. For fans of Shakur and Smalls, this is a must see. For non-fans, this is a good and informative movie that just might make you more interested in the larger than live personas mentioned in the title. Get ready to get involved in some deep conversation after seeing this film.
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