With streets named for presidents, historians, politicians and reggae king Bob Marley, Brooklyn could name a thoroughfare in honor of slain, Jamaican, hip-hop rapper Christopher Wallace. Also known as Biggy Smalls and the Notorious B.I.G. he grew up in the borough and found international fame rapping about his neighborhood. A petition is now being distributed throughout that could secure a name change at the intersection of St. James Place and Fulton Way to Christopher Wallace Way in the Clinton Hill neighborhood where the rapper was raised.
Wallace grew up at 226 St. James Place located between Fulton Street and St. James Place.
“Artistically during Christopher Wallace’s time in music he was considered the best at his craft,” LeRoy McCarthy, the individual who initiated the petition said.
In his plea, he described Biggie’s emergence as one that developed from being “the story of a boy to a man accomplishing greatness, using words as his tools.”
He said that story “continues to have a resounding influence” beyond his 1997 passing.
Wallace was born on May 21, 1972 and grew up in Brooklyn.
He released his debut album ‘Ready To Die’ in 1994 after coming to the attention of Sean Combs, aka P Diddy, and married singer Faith Evans in 1995.
“He has such a legacy as a music creator and always represented Brooklyn with pride,” McCarthy said. “I want to pay tribute to him in some way.”
Recently, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation renamed a Brooklyn Heights playground “Adam Yauch Park” in honor of the late member of the Beastie Boys.
According to reports, the City Council voted in July to rename 52 streets after other notable New Yorkers.
What is required for the co-naming of a street is that the submission be “historically or culturally significant.”
In addition, the candidate should be deceased for more than three years.
The proposal should also meet the requirements of community board number two to be considered for submission to the Transportation and Public Safety committee.
Wallace was murdered in a drive by shooting in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997. He was shot four times as he sat in the passenger seat of a car he rode to an awards show after-party in California.
In the years since Wallace’s death, there has been speculation that the murder was an act of revenge for the death of rapper Tupac Shakur, who was killed six months earlier in Las Vegas.
Neither Shakur’s nor Wallace’s murder cases have been solved. Nor has any killer been identified.
McCarthy hopes to get 10,000 people to sign his petition.
Allegedly more than 700 signatures have been collected.
For more information, visit www.change.com.