CHILL X SPILL  'I GOT A STORY TO TELL' 
CHRISTOPHER 'NOTORIOUS BIG' WALLACE DOCUMENTARY 
NETFLIX ORIGINAL REVIEW

'Chill and Spill' is a new feature on BRIDGE the GAP where various presenters will break down one of Netflix's popular shows in the top 10.

On this 'CHILL and SPILL pilot, Joel Benjamin talks about Christopher ‘Notorious BIG’ Wallace’s early childhood, the friendship turn feud between himself and Tupac Shakur. 

He also gives his perspective  on the new 2021 documentary ‘I Got A Story To Tell’ on Biggie’s life. 

Listen now only on BRIDGE the GAP’s ‘CHILL & SPILL’.

Perhaps posthumous legacy was always on the mind of late rapper Christopher “Notorious BIG” Wallace. His impactful debut album Ready to Die was followed by Life After Death, released 16 days after he was killed aged 24, in a still-unsolved, drive-by shooting. Yet while there have been several filmic attempts to capture this legascy –– including Nick Broomfield’s 2002 documentary Biggie & Tupac and the 2009 biopic Notorious –– this Netflix release is the first to successfully sidestep the quicksand of murder mystery, and focus instead on what Wallace accomplished in life.

Clearly redressing that balance was the motivation of at least two executive producers, including Wallace’s label boss and friend, Sean “Diddy” Combs, who early on declares: “This story doesn’t have to have a tragic ending.” It’s the contribution of Wallace’s mother, though, that’s particularly significant. Firstly in the form of family photos and stories illustrating a childhood spent between their Brooklyn neighbourhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant and her family’s home in Trelawny, Jamaica. There, young Wallace’s favourite uncle exposed him to sound system culture, while back in Brooklyn a jazz musician neighbour played him Max Roach and Clifford Brown. So that by the time a 17-year-old Biggie triumphed in the now-legendary rap battle on Bedford and Quincy, he was already “rhyming in a way that exudes all the finer qualities of a bebop drum solo”.

More subtly though, Ms Wallace’s involvement gives permission for loyal associates to open up about the “gangster” part of “gangster rapper”. The darkest rumours are omitted, but there’s a detailed account of how Biggie came to dominate the local crack cocaine economy. These mid-90s, north-west Brooklyn specificities are fascinating and relevant; to Biggie’s art, certainly, but possibly also to his death.

LISTEN TO 

DJ Eskei 83 - the Red Bull Thre3Style World Champion 2014

MINI 'NOTORIOUS BIG' MIX 

WATCH I GOT A STORY TO TELL 15+

LOST INTERVIEWS BECKY HILL S.2 E.6 'FOREVER YOUNG' 
Laura Alexandra in conversation with BECKY HILL.
Hill talks about working in the studio with 'LITTLE MIX' and more.

LISTEN to 'Forever Young' in  ALIEN BOOTH at the end of this amazing interview.