It Was All a Dream...

Who can't finish the lyrics to that couplet? (That's 'I used to read Word Up! magazine' for the rap uninitiated). The 'Ready to Die' album was one of those moments, not just in hip hop history, but in music history, when you felt sure you were living through something special; what it must have been like to be a teen, for instance, when Marvin dropped 'Here, My Dear,' or the Beatles released 'Abbey Road.' Of course, 'Ready to Die' was, in part, Biggie's biography, and that made it all the more resonant. But it also introduced him as an unlikely heartthrob: B.I.G. was a hulking teddy bear, shyt-talking, smart, clownish, aggressive, fiercely loyal, soft-spoken and bellicose all at once. So many of the qualities that have made me crush on Brooklyn's finest men for so long. Though flawed by a drug-dealing past in Bed-Stuy, B.I.G. found a way to make those exploits classic material. More than excited to see what the filmmakers serve up in 'Notorious.'