How Netflix’s New Biggie Smalls Documentary Tells the Origin Story of Christopher Wallace

Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace was one of the most talented, influential rappers of all time, with pristine abilities on the mic, a glowing sense of humor, and a fly sense of fashion. And since his life was cut so short after his murder in 1997 at 24 years old, there have been multiple films, books, and posthumous records, all focused on attempting to either preserve his musical legacy or to make sense of his senseless death.

I Got A Story To Tell, released this month on Netflix, does neither of those things. Instead, it tells an origin story as Big’s lifelong friend Damion “D-Roc” Butler for the first time reveals reams of personal footage shot in hotel rooms and backstage at shows, showing a vulnerable side of the rap legend rarely witnessed outside of his inner circle. Director Emmett Malloy dives deep into the people and places that created Christopher Wallace: from his visits to his mother’s family in Jamaica, to the lesser known loved ones in the several-block radius that formed his Brooklyn stomping grounds. Along with Sean “Diddy” Combs, Butler, and Biggie’s mother Voletta Wallace, the film includes his Jamaican uncle and grandmother, jazz musician and neighbor Donald Harrison, and other childhood friends. And instead of dwelling on the (still infuriating) murder, the film focuses on just how fragile his success was in the first place: on how many times he could have lost his chance at stardom altogether, and how he overcame it. “His story doesn't have to be a tragic ending,” says Puffy in the film.

GQ talked to Malloy, Butler, and producer Wayne Barrow to discuss the previously unheralded characters of Biggie’s life, their reaction to criticism of the film, and feedback from Big’s friend and fellow Brooklyn rap titan, Jay-Z.

GQ: There have been so many things to come out about Biggie already – a biopic, a documentary about his and 2Pac’s death, books, posthumous albums. How do you pursue something like this and cover new ground?

Wayne Barrow: For us, I think it was easy because all of those things that you made mention of, all these different documentaries, films, books and so forth, have always focused on Notorious BIG. His life as a rapper, performer, and the death itself. And for us, it’s always been about his life and finding the right synergies to assure that we pull that together so that the Christopher Wallace story was told in a way that you understood why Biggie became who he was as an MC. I’ve been a part of most of what was going on, from Notorious to some of the other docs. However, the one person that has never spoken in these 24 years is Damion Butler.

Damion “D-Roc” Butler: This is the first estate-backed, stamped documentary. It just felt more family-oriented. Emmett’s got the eyes, he saw it. He’s the one that encouraged me, along with Wayne, to actually get on it. Like you said in the beginning, it’s just a different type of story. You learned something that you didn't know about Biggie, and a lot of people that actually grew up with him didn't know half the stuff. A lot of people have been watching it, and my phone has been blowing up, like, “wow, like, we didn't know that. Thank you for sharing.”

All of this unseen footage feels less like I’m watching a documentary at times, and more like I'm watching somebody's family home videos. How much did you revisit those tapes on your own over the years, before you started working on this?

D-Roc: Back and forth. It's like an emotional roller coaster when it comes to that stuff. Because for me, it was just not watching tapes; it’s like a visual diary for me. I might watch them on his birthday or something like that, then sometimes I might bury them for five years. They're not just like sitting on the mantelpiece. Sometimes, I don’t even want to look at the box. So it's a little difficult. It took time. Maybe 2014 is when I officially didn't watch it. But by 2012, it started fading out from when I was really getting depressed. It was bittersweet. It’s fun while you're watching it, then when the reality is set in, you know, your friend is not there, it’s not even fun no more.

One thing I thought was beautiful about the film was the way that you guys humanized Voletta. She wasn't just Biggie’s mom; you bring up her story of coming to the United States, what her dreams were when she came here, and what her son's success meant in the context of that. Did any of you guys find new information about her that you didn't know before working on this?

Emmett: For me sitting down with Ms. Wallace first time, hearing her roots of Jamaica and that they went on vacation there once a year, every summer, was just so interesting. And when she started to give me those stories about her growing up listening to country music—it was just on the radio every day. So Big grew up absorbing Jamaican culture and music, plus country. His friends saying, “he couldn't go to bed without country music.” Those stories [are when] I started to realize that I can do other things in this film beyond D-Roc’s footage. I can have these other stories, and then his footage will light it up because that's the real stuff. But maybe I can bring some of these stories to life somehow in Jamaica. That trip set it off. I mean, D-Roc even called me after I posted a picture of me sitting with Big’s grandma. I think that let him know that we were on the right path, and that made him more excited to know that we were going after a story that he knew was a good one as well.

D-Roc: Emmett definitely cracked me out of my shell. From the moment I met him, he’s just had a different vision. Of course, Big’s been gone since ‘97. Everybody's been talking about doing something –– the footage, the footage, the footage, the footage. But Emmett had integrity from the jump. He was focused on really getting to know Chris, he wanted to know the artist before the rapper. We just trusted him. You know when something feels right, and something don't. So Emmett was the guy, and Wayne didn't twist my arm. Everybody thinks Wayne bullied me but he didn't [laughs]. It all blended perfectly.

We all know that hip hop has roots in other black music across the diaspora. But what was interesting to me was seeing these direct ties that he had. Seeing Big’s uncle creating music in Jamaica, or having a mentor in jazz musician Donald Harrison. How important was it to showcase the different sides of his musicality that weren't just a matter of ancestral connections, but actual connections in his life?

Wayne: That was extremely critical. And I'm glad Emmett made that choice. You could have easily just stayed true to form in terms of the Caribbean roots and left it there. But once he and his researchers started doing more digging, they started to understand that there was more to the story, especially in the younger years, than meets the eye. The jazz element, the country music in terms of what his mother listened to. It forced him to embrace storytelling in a different way, because as a child, that was embedded in him. I think connecting those dots really gave Emmett an opportunity to make a choice that told you some things that catapulted Christopher Wallace into The Notorious B.I.G., and I think he told it well.

Emmett: I tried to let the audience derive their own conclusion. I didn't want to ever say like, “he went to Jamaica, that's why “Respect” is the way it is.” This was how he was raised. This was what was playing in his house when he was growing up. This is the neighbor he had. With Donald, it was several conversations. The second time talking to him, we hear about this Max Roach song and he starts going off on this story. We're like, “what song is it?” He didn't remember. So a week later, he calls me back and said, “Oh, I remembered. It was Max Roach with Clifford Brown.” So then I'm rolling into these interviews with them, knowing the story I want to get. I'm in a real sophisticated place, talking to these people, because by the time I filmed them, I knew Ms. Wallace's story. I knew the stories that I was looking to get, I knew the locations that I wanted to put them in to make the story more emotional and layered. That detail seems to be what people are reacting to, and that's such a great feeling as a filmmaker, for people to pick up on all those little details you tried to drop.

I consider myself a pretty big fan of Biggie, but until watching this film, I didn't truly realize there was so much that I had no idea about. D-Roc, this is your best friend, so you know most of this. But Emmett, what is it like to be discovering all of this new information in real time?

Emmett: I'm not on the shortlist of guys you would expect to direct this film. So for me, when I saw all that information, that started to become a film I could make. This is like a coming of age story. It’s a relationship. It's about a family and friends from this small little neighborhood, and why that neighborhood also became the reason why their story was the way it was. All those things are classic story elements that I could latch onto. And so when it started to become less about prolific abilities in the studio, and more about how this kid was raised in Jamaica, things started to pop off, and that's when it started to become a movie that was a good fit for me. But again, the Donald Harrison thing is even something that Wayne, who's been around the estate a good part of his life, that was even a new spin on it for him. That’s when I was really excited, to be able to get things that people didn't know.

Wayne: Yeah, I definitely did not know that. had no idea how that went, that blew my mind. Especially when he utilized the drum pattern, and then played the video on top of it. That scene, in itself, fucked me up. [In one scene, footage of Biggie freestyling is superimposed over footage of drummer Max Roach playing, and Donald Harrison explains “If you slow one of Max’s ideas down, you can hear The Notorious B.I.G. was accenting those notes, and rhyming in a way that exudes all the finer qualities of a bebop drum solo.”]

D-Roc: And you can actually see it while he's playing the drums. If you’ve been in a studio with him, it makes sense. I didn’t know that, either.

Wayne: One other thing that I want to point out, because I think it's important to be said. Emmett was a great choice for us, for a number of reasons. But none greater than the fact that he was able to pull this story together by tapping into the heartstrings of individuals who, every year on March 9 or May 21, feel this emotional connection to Biggie. That couple of days, and with the 363 other days that they still reel in this pain that we feel from having him no longer here. And to do that, in the way that he did it, to me, kudos to you first, Emmett. But more specifically, I think it allows people like D-Roc to open himself up and show his vulnerabilities as it relates to losing his friend, and allow himself to tell his story, which I think is a whole other thing. Because that story is a direct reflection of what Biggie’s life was, but from a different purview. And that's a story to be told. I think that shines through in this piece.

So how did you guys figure out that Emmett was the right person for it?

Wayne: It was a number of things. We sat with different directors over the years. Every director that we've ever spoken to, has always talked about the same thing. It was always the same story, just a different perspective. Emmett, when he sat down with myself and Ms. Wallace for the first time, we were sitting down in Pennsylvania at Red Lobster. We gave him the vision of what we saw based on the conversations that she and I had, and it was really just about giving something to the fans and letting fans tell their inspirational stories about Christopher, because that was never done before. Emmett sat with us at that table, and he conceptualized that vision, and gave us something different in that meeting. That in itself let us know right then and there, that there was no need to look any further because this man is looking beyond the scope of what we're telling him. He's looking beyond the scope of what he's seen. He's telling us that he believes it can be something stronger, and this is what it is.

D-Roc: I felt the same way. Wayne can cosign this: he knows I’ve been sitting on stuff for a long time. Me and Emmett met actually with me going to do an interview. I just looked to see what he was doing and where he was going, I said, “Okay, this is a different type of guy right here. I want to do mine now.” I just felt very comfortable with him. It’s what he cared about that meant a lot to me. The Jamaica part just took it over the top. Like, “wow, nobody even thought of that.” He’s a family man. He’s not running around the industry like that. Some people just want to get things and run with it. It’s really a different doc. These are words from Jay-Z, last night: “nobody’s told this story like that. That’s how you’re supposed to represent your man when you tell a story.” He was texting me all throughout the night watching this thing. And then the Snoop thing. It makes you feel really good.

It seems like everybody within hip hop culture absolutely loves it. But I've seen some people, who seem to be outside of the culture, who are critical that you didn't cover more of his death, some of the more tumultuous parts of his life.How did you decide what to keep in and what to keep out, considering that he lived such a full life in a short time?

Emmett: As far as getting specific with the death and the beef, I had nothing new to offer there. We just stayed specific on our goal. We were kind of always hoping this would end with Ready To Die, it goes platinum, that's the fulfillment of the dream they all had. That's as big as you could ever see yourself going, we thought that was where we always wanted to end it. That was our pitch, all along the way. Then you start realizing you're making this for a Netflix audience, most of whom weren't even born when he was doing his thing. So then you start to open your mind to the audience you're going to. In the end, I think we put in all the moments that felt right for this film.

D-Roc: This story was told exactly how it's supposed to be like. There will be another story to tell, but this was where our heads were, and where we needed to go to move forward and move on. Like I said, it was somewhat therapy for me. This is the perfect story for the perfect time. Whatever somebody didn't like, I'm sure there's a reason they probably didn't see it, kind of like Biggie’s rhymes. You might not get it now, but you'll get it later.

Wayne: Another thing to add to that, too, is I think that we as a culture tend to sensationalize and gravitate to negativity. It's the negative thing that drives us, but it's the positive that feeds us. And if we look at life from what feeds us, we can live our lives in a more purposeful way. It's really easy for us to continue to tell this negative story about a man that died, but it's much much more gratifying to talk about how he lived. That’s what this was for us. I think if people just sit back and look at the story for what it is, and appreciate what they're watching from beginning to end, I think their hearts will be touched, because the man that we're showing you in this film was a father, a son, a friend, family to many, and had fans all over the world.

Wayne, you were involved in Notorious and some of the other projects that have been done about his life. How did those projects inform the approach that you took for this one?

Wayne: [scoffs] Man, what?! Listen, Notorious was done, from my perspective, in a way that was necessary at that time, given the dynamics of where we were, and it was more of something that Ms. Wallace wanted. We tried our best to make sure that we gave the people enough to chew on. But in essence, if it was up to her, Notorious would have been a Disney film. I had to get her to a place to understand that there are things about your son that you don't know. There's things that he's done in his life that you're not gonna appreciate. There's things that his family knows, that people that live with him know. So you have to figure out a way to embrace this. Otherwise, this is not going to make any sense.

It was a very, very difficult thing to do. She let us go, but she made sure she reeled us back. So that story was about Notorious B.I.G. Simply, how he became Notorious B.I.G. The murders were still being investigated, there was so much fear surrounding his death—that's the story that needed to be told. So the choice was, just like we made a choice here to talk about the younger years—the younger years in Notorious [accounted for like] two minutes. That was CJ standing on the corner showing that he was a drug dealer; after that, that was it.

So it informed every decision that I've made, moving forward, from a creative standpoint, in terms of what we would do and what we wouldn't do, because it was important that we stay true and authentic to Christopher. And I think as much as we did with Notorious, it still wasn't authentic as it could have been. I wanted to make sure that this one had the right individuals by my side to assure that we did that. And that's why I fought so hard to get D-Roc specifically by my side, because that story was the most critical for me, and I didn't want to have another one of those situations on my hands.

I also thought it was interesting how you told the story of Olie [Roland “Olie” Young, Big’s childhood friend, and early advocate for his rap talents, who was shot and killed by his uncle, and memorialized on “Miss U” from Life After Death. ] . You heard Biggie rap about him on “Miss U,” but for a lot of people, that's all we know about him. What prompted the decision to tell his story in that way?

Emmett: It was a name that kept popping up in all of my interviews. When that starts to happen, you start to go through all the clues to find out who this guy is. Do we have footage? Are there photos? Then we started to get into the story. It became a trend when Cease talks about it, when D-Roc talks about it, when it gets brought up, in different conversations that we were having, we knew it was a story. When Ms. Wallace said that the two times she had seen him cry were when Olie died, and when Tupac died. She also mentioned a little baby goat he loved in Jamaica that they ate for dinner, that that made him cry as well. [laughs] I tried so hard to get that story in the movie, but it just didn't make it. But anyways, from there, we started to investigate. I mean, literally, my writer just went deep into Instagram feeds and started finding out things like his old girlfriend that he has a kid with. Then we talked to her and then all of a sudden, we got a hold of Frank Nitti and got a voice that knew him on that side of town.

And you know, coupled with finding news footage from the night that [Olie’s] uncle murdered him, that stuff all started to become enough where we could build a story out of it. Then the anchor was Big’s interview that he did with Cheo [Hodari Coker, veteran journalist and storyteller], and another interview that he did for that film The Show, we found some bits in there where he was talking about Olie, and we were able to make something. I wanted to present a journey. Like all heroes journeys, there's narrower versions where it almost didn't happen. And that was one of them.

The other was when he and D-Roc went to North Carolina. We set those up as, well, what if this did go wrong? What if in North Carolina, they stayed one more day, maybe none of this would be happening. That was important for me to have. With Olie, we had to really find a way to bring that story to life. I had two photos of him to work with, and that was it. We were able to do it by finding the right ways to get it across, mixed with things that did get said when he was around that showed you how deep their vibe was. It seemed like he was Puff before Puff.

Originally Appeared on GQ