Big Poppa
“I had to go to Biggie boot camp,” says Woolard, who’s also known as supersize Brooklyn-based rapper Gravy. The already hefty rhyme-slinger ballooned to 340 pounds (“I just wanted to get my second chin back”), spent time with Voletta Wallace (the real Big’s mother), and worked with a speech coach to nail down that trademark lisp (“We both have it; his tongue just lays down flatter than mine”) to get into the role.

 Hypnotized
“I even listened to Willie Nelson CDs,” laughs Woolard, “because that’s what Ms. Wallace was playing while Big grew up.” Willie wasn’t the only musical inspiration Woolard sought. “Puff told me to be myself. Don’t follow Biggie too hard. He’d watch a performance once in a while, but would leave ’cause he was getting flashbacks.”

Ready to Die
In 2006, Woolard was shot outside of New York City radio station Hot 97. But instead of going to the hospital, he still went up and performed. “The haters win if I just go to the hospital,” says Woolard. That attitude makes Gravy more like Biggie than even he realizes. “It’s a beautiful thing being compared to the best. I’m chasing the same dream he was.”