Caught this on Amazon Prime (Broomfield has several other films featured on there recently) -
Biggie and Tupac (2002) - a documentary from accomplished British filmmaker Nick Broomfield (Kurt & Courtney, Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer).
Shot in a handheld format with no jazzy editing and a stark grainy "urban" look, Broomfield charts the rise of the two slain rap stars from street hip-hopping, through to global mega-stardom, and their eventual mindless east-coast/west-coast feud that ended both men being gunned down within 6 months of each other.
Some priceless archive footage - a young Biggie hip-hop freestyling on the streets of his native Brooklyn aged 17, an energised Tupac ranting about recording and producing in the studio (he recorded an insane amount of material in his short life, and was a workaholic).
It's surprisingly moving and tragic - Loretta, mother of Christopher "Biggie" Smalls is particularly noble and proud of her son's achievements whilst quietly raging at the way he was mysteriously slain with no-one answerable for his death.
Indeed - the fact that no-one was ever convicted for the murders makes the movie a fascinating journey into the dark side of fame, with the LAPD, FBI, various hangers-on and the menacing figure of Marion "Suge" Knight all implied to have had a hand in the deaths of both men.
Broomfields' bumbling, strangely laconic style shouldn't work when tackling such a divisive and volatile subject matter, but it just DOES. Witness the final climatic prison interview with the hugely imposing figure of "Suge" Knight - whilst you can sense the fear (the camera man is very jumpy) Broomfield is very upfront and mellow in the face of such a notorious figure.
Even if you don't like rap/hip-hop, the mystery of the murders and the various characters involved are definitely worth seeing.
The film is a valuable document of a strange time in pop culture when stars freely associated with gangsters and undesirables - indeed glorified them (certainly in the case of Tupac Shakur).
"Suge" Knight looks, talks and sounds like a comic-book crime baron....indeed he is currently back in the slammer for 28 years for the manslaughter of a man he "accidentally" ran over....
Worth it for his interview alone...
