Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell

Christopher Wallace grew up in Brooklyn; his mother was a Jamaican teacher who raised him alone. As a boy he drew, then he started dealing on the street and freestyling in the same years. He released his first album at twenty one and was killed at twenty four. The documentary covers that short span. Emmett Malloy directs. It was released on Netflix in 2021. Its main source is video shot by his closest friend Damion Butler, who carried a camera for years; that footage had never been published and is the documentary's original material. It was made with the participation of his family and friends; his mother Voletta Wallace is among the central witnesses. Its most interesting section is Jamaica: Wallace spent summers there as a child, and part of the sense of rhythm in his music is described as coming from that. The documentary does not treat his death or the east and west conflict of the period at length; that is a deliberate choice and the narrative concentrates on the time he lived. The critical distance is limited; the period of dealing is described and its consequences are not dwelt on. Who it is for: viewers who follow the history of hip hop and music documentary. Who it is not for: it is not critical, the questions about his death stay open, and the structure is linear.