On March 9, 1997, in Los Angeles, just as The Notorious B.I.G. is stopped at a red light, an assailant in a Chevrolet Impala pulls up next to his SUV and opens fire.

The film flashes back to his childhood in 1980s Brooklyn, New York, where he was a hard-working school student before being groomed into drug dealing. Christopher Wallace, The Notorious B.I.G.'s real name, begins selling drugs at the height of the crack epidemic as he reaches adulthood, hustling with his friends Damion "D-Roc" Butler and Lil' Cease.

When Christopher's girlfriend Jan tells him that she is pregnant, Christopher takes drug dealing more seriously so he can earn more money to support his growing family. Christopher eventually participates in a rap battle, where he wins. However, his mother, Voletta, kicks him out of the house after finding crack underneath his bed and also because of the fact letters were sent home about him not attending school.

Christopher gets caught with guns and drugs, and he serves nine months in jail before being bailed out. Christopher meets Kim Jones, but Kim refuses to pursue a relationship with him due to her abusive past, although the two soon become closer. After reconciling with his mother and visiting his newborn daughter, T'yanna, he records a demo under the name "Biggie Smalls", which catches the attention of Sean "Puffy" Combs, an ambitious record producer working for Uptown. Puffy promises him a record deal, but Puffy later tells Biggie that he was fired by Uptown, to their mutually shared disappointment. Soon afterwards, he and D-Roc are again arrested for possessing a gun, but D-Roc takes the blame to allow Biggie to pursue his music career.

Biggie becomes depressed when he finds out his mother has been diagnosed with breast cancer, but is cheered up when Puffy signs him to his newly established record label, Bad Boy with a $60,000 advance and he records his debut album, Ready to Die. At a Bad Boy photoshoot, Biggie meets R&B singer Faith Evans. The pair begin a relationship and get married on August 4, 1994, after only knowing each other for eight days. However, Faith catches him cheating, putting an end to the relationship. The two later reconcile, but the tensions between Biggie, Faith, Jan, and Kim, who is shown to be jealous of Faith, continue to grow.

At a party celebrating the release of Ready to Die, Tupac Shakur attends and talks to Biggie, with Biggie warning him about the people he associates with, telling him to watch the company he keeps while he's in New York. When Tupac is robbed and shot five times at Quad Studios, he blames Bad Boy. At The Source Awards in 1995, Suge Knight makes a speech dissing Bad Boy Records.

After altercations between the two rappers, the disagreement escalates into the media, who capitalize on the tension and stoke the flames of an "East Coast–West Coast feud", and attacks are made on both sides. At the 1996 Soul Train Awards in Los Angeles, Biggie receives a death threat from an unknown caller; it is one of several that he has received throughout the day. At the afterparty, Tupac and Suge Knight verbally assault Biggie, but they leave whe…

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Antoine Fuqua was originally set to direct before director George Tillman Jr. signed on to direct the project. The film was distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Producers on Notorious include Sean Combs, Voletta Wallace and Biggie's former managers Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts.
In early October 2007, open casting calls for the role of The Notorious B.I.G. began. Actors, rappers and members of the public all participated. Rapper Beanie Sigel auditioned for the role but was not picked. Nissim Black (then known as D. Black) was also under consideration. Eventually it was announced that Jamal Woolard was cast as Biggie (he would also play Biggie in the Tupac biopic All Eyez on Me).

Other cast members include Angela Bassett as Voletta Wallace, Derek Luke as Sean Combs, Antonique Smith as Faith Evans, Naturi Naughton (formerly of 3LW) as Lil' Kim, Dennis L.A. White as D-Roc and Anthony Mackie as Tupac Shakur. The members of the hip-hop group True 2 Life Music held small roles. An unknown actor also portrays Craig Mack in a scene as well.
Principal photography began in March 2008.

A soundtrack album was released to accompany the film, although only eight of its tracks feature in the movie. The following tracks which Christopher Wallace Jr. had input on feature in the movie:
• "Born Again" (Intro)
• "Hypnotize"
• "Going Back to Cali"
• "Ten Crack Commandments"
• "Bed Stuy Brooklyn" (the film credits list this as the title, although the track appears on the soundtrack under the name "Guaranteed Raw")
• "Suicidal Thoughts"
• "Everyday Struggle"
• "It's a Demo" (the film credits list this as the title, although the track appears on the soundtrack under the name "Microphone Murderer")
• "Pimps & Macs"
• "Party and Bullshit"
• "Machine Gun Funk"
• "Unbelievable"
• "Juicy"
• "Flava in Ya Ear"
• "Big Poppa"
• "Warning"
• "I Love the Dough"
• "Get Money"
• "Gimme the Loot"
• "Who Shot Ya?"
• "Sky's the Limit"