Movie Execs Cast Rapper To Play Biggie

The story of the Notorious B.I.G. is set to debut on the big screen come January. Fox Searchlight is developing the rapper’s biopic, Notorious, and have just cast the movie's namesake. Jamal Woolard, also of Brooklyn and a former drug dealer, has been picked out of one hundred B.I.G.'s – literally and figuratively - after an open-casting call last fall.

The Hollywood Reporter also adds that Derek Luke will play Biggie’s sidekick Sean “Diddy” Combs. Otherwise known as Puff Daddy. Otherwise known as Diddy. Otherwise known as Sean John. Angela Bassett, who has a knack for playing the mother of major musicians – you’ll remember her in the innumerable repeats of VH1’s Jackson 5 movie – will play Voletta Wallace, who in real life has a hand in the production.

Woolard, who is signed to Warner Bros. records, is best known for – what else – being shot outside of New York rap station Hot 97 two years ago, then infamously proceeding with his interview afterwards. Execs hoped that by casting a rapper rather a better-known actor, he would better imitate the rapper who shot in a drive-by in Las Vegas in 1997.