Jamal Woolard, a Brooklyn-based rapper best known as “Gravy,” has been tapped to play rap icon Biggie Smalls, in the upcoming biopic Notorious, which is set for a January 2008 release. Gravy is perhaps best known for being shot before a radio appearance outside New York’s Hot 97 in 2005.

Derek Luke, Angela Bassett and Anthony Mackie habeen have also been cast in the movie, Fox Searchlight studio said.

Luke (”Catch a Fire”) will play Biggie record producer Sean “Diddy” Combs, who off-screen is an executive producer on the film. Mackie (”Brother to Brother”) will play rival rapper Tupac Shakur, while Bassett (”Akeelah and the Bee”) will play Biggie’s mother Voletta Wallace.