How Is Gravy Commemorating Notorious B.I.G. Today?

Like many folks, you may have woken up this morning (March 9) to a bunch of Notorious B.I.G. lyrics in your Twitter timeline or heard about tribute events in your city that will commemorate Biggie on this 13th anniversary of his untimely death.

Tonight, rapper-turned-actor Jamal “Gravy” Woodard—who earned rave reviews for his portrayal of the Brooklyn rap legend in 2009’s Notorious—will be hosting a tribute charity party called Think B.I.G. at Boston’s Rumor Nightclub.

He’ll also try to make it out to Diddy’s Biggie tribute party at The Lab in Brooklyn and, of course, place a call to Biggie’s mom, Voletta Wallace.

“It’s a charity event they asked me to do, [for] Goodwill I think. I’m a diabetic so it’s for the kids, too,” Gravy told VIBE today. “I’ll just be chilling, just hosting. It’s a youth party. They probably like 17, 18 years old.”

On March 9, 1997, Notorious B.I.G., born Christopher Wallace, was killed as he was leaving a party in L.A. His murder is still unsolved.

Tomorrow will be another special day for Gravy—his daughter Jamya’s second birthday. “That’s the day after Big, so that’s crazy. When he was doing what he did, when he got his first big break he had his daughter and for me to have my first child on the 10th, which could’ve been March 9th, just missed it by about 10, 15 minutes, that’s crazy.”

As for life after Notorious, Gravy said he’s currently planting the seeds for an autobiographical documentary, which has no official release date yet.

“I’m still very shocked by it. My life has changed drastically since the movie. I’m working on a piece right now called Life After the Movie,” said Gravy. “It’s a documentary, but it’s really a film about what’s been going on with Gravy and how long I been rapping and stuff like that ’cause a lot of people don’t know. The world just looked at me as an actor, but I was a rapper before an actor. So I got a story to tell.” —Clover Hope