It's been 12 years since Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. The Notorious B.I.G., was shot and killed in his escort SUV in Los Angeles, yet his killer and the reason for his murder remain a matter of speculation. So instead of focusing on the legendary rapper's death, director George Tillman Jr.'s 2009 biopic, Notorious, captures the multifarious challenges of Biggie Smalls' rise from Brooklyn crack dealer to superstar MC, along with his "everyday struggle" of trying to balance a personal life with staying on top of the game.

Played capably by Jamal Woolard -- an up and coming rapper in his own right -- Wallace is a young man searching for his identity through music and the high-risk chance at monetary success on the street corners of New York City. Some of the best scenes in the film are where Biggie realizes he can gain credibility as a rapper (and possibly get out of the drug trade) by challenging neighborhood emcees to improvised rap battles, and when he takes his nuanced flow to the mixtape, which eventually falls into the hands of Sean "Puffy" Combs.

The rest is the history of East Coast rap in the '90s, as Combs' Bad Boy records, with the help of multi-platinum Notorious B.I.G. releases, Ready to Die and Life After Death, becomes the most successful label in the industry. As troubling as it is inspirational, Notorious succeeds because Tillman remembers that the life of the individual is paramount to the story, not rumors of how or why he died.