Hip Hop Hall of Fame is Raising Funds to Erect a Notorious B.I.G. Statue in Brooklyn

The Hip Hop Hall of Fame has set up a GoFundMe page and is hoping to raise $35,000 to bring a Notorious B.I.G. statue to Brooklyn.

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Complex Original

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When you think of Brooklyn rap, one of the first names that instantly comes to mind is the Notorious B.I.G. Born Christopher Wallace, Biggie helped put the New York boroughs on the map as an epicenter of rap in the early 1990s. Now, almost 20 years after his untimely death, the Hip Hop Hall of Fame is seeking to honor Biggie's legacy by erecting a statue of his likeness at Putnam Triangle Plaza in Clinton Hill, near the Bed-Stuy neighborhood where he grew up. They need your help to do it. 

The museum has started a GoFundMe page to help make the statute, which was designed by local artists Tanda Francis, a reality. They are seeking $35,000 from the public at large and have quite a long way to go. "The BIGGIE Memorial will be a new New York landmark in the neighborhood which still treasures him," they wrote in a press release. "The memorial will be a bold reminder of the hip hop and music history which has helped form the creative and cultural landscape of New York City and around the world."

While there are numerous murals around the area depicting Biggie in Brooklyn, as Dennis Mathis of the Christopher Wallace foundation pointed out, "One day they’re gonna paint over those depending on what the landlord of the building is but if you put a sculpture, then that’s permanent and it’s not just to memorialize him but economically what it does to the area.”

The proposed Notorious B.I.G. statue is just the latest, physical reminder of hip-hop's impact in the city. In February, the Mayor of New York City renamed two blocks in the Bronx after the influential rapper Cool Herc and MC Buckethead.

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