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"Notorious" is more money-making at the oppressed's expense, avoids
dealing with repression in society
Notorious
Directed by George Tillman Jr.
Written by Reggie Rock Bythewood and Cheo Hodari Coker
Bystorm Films, Voletta Wallace Films, Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment
Group and Fox Searchlight Pictures
Rated R
100 minutes
2009
Reviewed January 2009
"Notorious" covers the life of New York rapper Christopher Wallace,
and follows Wallace from when he was a boy to his death, portraying
the aftermath of the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur and touching on
the fatal 1996 shooting of 2Pac. Part-way through the movie, this
reviewer realized that "Notorious" wasn't doing the personal image of
either Christopher Wallace or Tupac Shakur any favors, or at least
this reviewer had a better impression of both before seeing this
movie. For example, Wallace (Jamal Woolard) is a self-indulgent,
perpetually immature persyn with esteem issues who sells crack to a
pregnant Black womyn when nobody else would, and Tupac (Anthony
Mackie) is a paranoid pothead quick to mouth off against Wallace
safely from thousands of miles away. So, the question is what does
"Notorious" do instead. It does make Sean Combs (played by Derek
Luke) look good for taking Wallace off the streets, among other
things. Of course, the outrage is that Diddy now lets himself be
broadcast on global television singing the praises of Barack Obama
and thereby supporting the killing of people in Afghanistan and
Pakistan. Euro-Amerikans have some problems with hip hop
domestically, but actions like Diddy's contribute to making hip hop
something that can be used as a soundtrack for Amerikan soldiers'
riddling Third World people with bullets and shrapnel. There is a way
in which it is necessary to disparage Wallace and Tupac in order to
elevate Combs, even though Combs is in the same boat as Wallace in
one theory about what happened to Tupac in November of 1994.
Last year, Diddy faced a media accusation that he was involved in the
1994 attack on 2Pac. This reviewer doesn't want to see the media
blaming some Black man again and again for what happened to 2Pac
without addressing the role of the white media and the white state in
the so-called East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry and their role in
violence experienced by oppressed nationalities in the United $tates
in general. Also, it is not only Black businesspeople promoting
themselves in the media. However, it is a little hard to sympathize
with Diddy when he helps makes a movie that glorifies himself while
presenting a muted criticism of the media's coverage of the bicoastal
hip hop rivalry and steering away from controversy in regard to the
FBI and the Los Angeles and New York Police Departments. If Diddy is
going to encourage ignorance about government repression, he should
not be surprised by the consequences -- people looking at the 2Pac
attacks as if only some Black individuals could have been involved
and then the most obvious suspects, by financial interest,
visibility, etc.
To understand Biggie it is necessary to start at the beginning is the
message of "Notorious." Any who-do-it story or movie purporting to
show the chronology of events in a crime will have the potential to
distract from questions of societal forces and structures. However,
"Notorious" goes a step farther by vaguely raising Biggie's childhood
as having something to do with his death and portraying 2Pac as
someone who just sang infantile songs dissing East Coast hip hop.
This psychologizing and narrow portrayal fits the FBI understanding
of Biggie's and 2Pac's murders and domestic U.$. violence in general.
The FBI uses psychological profiles and also emphasizes the
interpersonal as an explanation for violence. Not to be left out, the
United States Department of Justice also gets some reflection in
"Notorious," which suggests that Christopher Wallace's childhood
academic smarts weren't getting him anywhere in the
get-rich-quick-or-die-trying so-called culture of hustling and
violence surrounding him.
Even though "Notorious" tarnishes the memory of Biggie and 2Pac and
takes a seemingly neutral position on the FBI that actually supports
FBI interpretations -- to boost Diddy for CIA, Pentagon and State
Department purposes -- the events as portrayed by "Notorious" reek of
a COINTELPRO-type operation, complete with attempts to sow paranoia,
media disinformation, possible sexual provocations, possible weapons
provocations, surveillance, and threats. Something strange is going
on for sure, but Biggie seems oblivious to any government role. This
reviewer would suggest making the release of "Notorious" an occasion
to study COINTELPRO.
This reviewer agrees with the gist of what Cedric Muhammad wrote in
the first paragraph of his Rap COINTELPRO series more than eight
years ago.(1)
"For years, while I was in the music industry I would
hear stories from so-called "conscious" artists about how the
government had effectively neutralized and destabilized various
pro-Black, Progressive and Civil Rights organizations through the
FBI's Counter Intelligence program (COINTELPRO). Then they would
inform me that they "knew" that COINTELPRO-like tactics were being
exercised today. Nine times out of ten after I asked them a question
or two I realized two things immediately 1) how little they actually
knew about the FBI's programs and its aims and objectives 2) these
artists wouldn't recognize COINTELPRO today if it hit them in the
face. It is not just artists who suffer from this problem, most Black
people today don’t have a working knowledge of exactly what the
U.S. government did to destroy Black organizations and discredit
Black leaders. And the many Black intellectuals that I have met, who
seem to know COINTELPRO inside out, don't seem to be able to identify
aspects of the programs existence today. I really came to realize
this through their inability to see how the phony East Coast - West
Coast Hip-Hop "War" of 1995-1997 had been fabricated and perpetuated
by the media, police departments and yes, even the FBI."
The situation is even worse than Cedric Muhammad says there, because
some so-called revolutionaries appear to be in denial about the
continuation of COINTELPRO-type activity after the 1970s. True, there
is no revolutionary or progressive movement in the United $tates
worth talking about outside the United $tates, but the extent of
international economic parasitism means that the United $tates has a
lot of resources to spend on both international and domestic spying.
Getting back to Biggie, questions about Biggie's psychology and the
individuals around Biggie and 2Pac at the time of the shootings have
a divisive character. Voletta Wallace, Biggie's mother, co-produced
"Notorious," suggesting that Biggie's biography is disputed enough to
require being established by an authority. Why would a mother making
a movie grossing tens of millions of dollars lie? "Notorious" is
pretty good at reinforcing a distorted "Death Around the Corner"
image of 2Pac as a paranoid dope-smoking loafer with nothing to do
but stand around with his finger on the trigger, but makes 2Pac look
like a liar for what he said in some songs/music videos about Biggie
and Combs. At the same time, "Notorious" depicts Biggie wondering
whether he did have something to do with 2Pac's death. "Notorious"
also has the potential to offend Lil' Kim fans.
Such things are divisive. Even if it is necessary to defend Biggie or
even Combs to some extent to upset some assumptions and focus
attention on federal agencies and police departments, what can unite
the oppressed is a discussion or exploration of imperialist
repression. Outside the context of this, to raise questions, as
"Notorious" does, about Biggie's and 2Pac's responsibility for their
own deaths while pitting fans of various individuals against each
other and diminishing all of them except Combs is divisive and mostly
serves the ideological needs of imperialism, as well as generating
advertising revenue and fatter wallets for some people.
Notes
1. Cedric Muhammad, "Hip-Hop Fridays: Rap COINTELPRO Part I," 2000
June 9, http://www.blackelectorate.com/articles.asp?ID=125