Jamal Woolard was just a little known rapper known as Gravy before he was personally selected by the mother of the late Christopher “Notorious B.I.G." Wallace to play her late son in the new musical biography, “Notorious.” He had no clue he was going to become an actor.

Woolard,33, who plays hip-hop star Biggie Smalls in the new biopic, was so determined to land the part that he reportedly put himself through a self-imposed "Biggie boot camp." He put cotton balls in his mouth to affect B.I.G.'s slow, semi-slurred speech; despite being a diabetic, he bulked up his already heft frame of 270 pounds until he tipped the scales at more than 300; he enlisted an acting coach; and he watched acclaimed biopics like "Ray!" "X," and "Walk the Line" to learn how actors like Jamie Foxx, Denzel Washington and Joaquin Phoenix deftly inhabited the very famous personas they portrayed.

However it wasn't until he watched the tragic life of French singer Edith Piaf unfold in 2007's French film "La Vie En Rose," that he felt completely ready to take up his role as Biggie Smalls.

Even though they came from the same neighborhood, grew up in single parent homes and are around the same age, the closet Woolard ever got to Wallace was watching the rapper’s funeral procession roll down Fulton Street in Bed-Sty. Once he got the role, however, Woolard discovered that there was an “undeniable spiritual connection” between the two.

“There were similarities going on while we were shooting,” said Woolard, who was an unemployed expectant father living in Charlotte, N.C. when director George Tillman tabbed him for the role. “Big had his daughter when he got the Bad Boy record deal that changed his life. And I got the movie deal when I had my daughter. It’s real spiritual and it’s real crazy. My daughter was born on March 10 and he died on March 9.”

Bad-boy Christopher Wallace, better known as the Notorious B.I.G., was a gangster rap superstar in life and a cash machine in death. As with friend-turned-rival Tupac Shakur, he has had more albums released under his name since his 1997 murder than he ever did alive. His double-disc set “Life After Death,” released fifteen days later, hit #1 on the U.S. album charts and was certified Diamond in 2000.

Raised in Brooklyn, New York, Biggie grew up during the peak years of the 1980s' crack epidemic and started dealing drugs at an early age. When Biggie released his debut album with the 1994 record “Ready to Die,” he was a central figure in the East Coast hip-hop scene and increased New York's visibility at a time when hip hop was mostly dominated by West Coast artists. While recording his second album, Biggie was heavily involved in the East Coast-West Coast hip hop feud dominating the scene at the time. On March 9, 1997, he was killed by an unknown assailant in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles.