So, to add a few things to Badler’s Notorious review/more-of-a-scene-report-less-of-a-review.

1. I had a simple criterion for judging the value of the movie: A Craig Mack cameo. And it comes maybe an hour and a half in. After they start kicking– new– Flava — In Ya Ear. My $11.50 was well spent. I hope in the director’s cut there’s an extended scene at the 1995 Source Awards showing Craig Mack’s beef-restarting podium scream "EAST COAST!!!!"

2. The guy they got to play Puff starts every scene playing Puff and finishes it playing Dave Chappelle playing Puff. 

3. If I were Christopher Wallace Jr., would I want to act in a movie where I see my father treat Lil Kim that way?

3.5. The actress who plays Lil Kim, Naturi Naughton, steals the movie. Gravy, who plays Biggie, is good enough, but even when he’s angry he appears subdued and he doesn’t appear substantially different at the film’s end. Meanwhile, you really see Kimberley Jones become Notorious K.I.M., and it’s a well-executed transformation.

4. Seeing a Golden Krust made me miss Flatbush and reminded me why I have lived here for six years and not eaten at the Jamaican place on Florida Ave near Georgia. 

5. There’s a Lil Wayne cameo when Biggie returns to Bed-Stuy. But is that Baby playing the rapper Primo whom Big outclasses during the movie’s first battle? I thought so at first, but apparently not.

6. Why no Jay-Z cameo? We get to hear his verse on "I Love The Dough" but not see the man himself. Speaking of, possibly more on that front later.