COURIER L 28 IFE, NOV. 23–29, 2018 M B G
BY JULIANNE CUBA
All it took was One More
Chance!
Late local hip-hop legend
Christopher “Biggie Smalls”
Wallace is all but certain to
get his name on a Clinton Hill
street after the neighborhood’s
community board okayed a
years-in-the-works proposal
to co-name the road after the
rapper.
Community Board 2’s
full board on Nov. 14 nearly
unanimously approved the
street co-naming a local artist
fi rst suggested back in
2013 , overwhelmingly endorsing
the suggested tribute that
fi ve years ago fi zzled out due
to some locals’ objections to
what they called Wallace’s offensive
rhymes, according to a
panel member.
“We heard some objections
that included denunciations
of his lyrics having to do with
profanity, misogyny, and violence,”
said Juliet Cullen-Cheung,
who heads CB2’s Transportation
Committee, which
green-lit the proposal last
month.
Thirty-three board members
voted in favor of christening
St. James Place between
Gates Avenue and Fulton
Street — the block where Biggie
grew up — as “Christopher
Wallace Way,” with one member
voting against it, and four
abstaining.
Critics in 2013 panned the
idea of honoring Wallace,
who died in a fatal shooting
at 24, claiming he was too fat
to be memorialized, and last
month again blasted the rapper
known as the Notorious
B.I.G. as undeserving of the
recognition due to his songs
that they called misogynistic
and violent.
But this time around, the
number of the idea’s opponents
did not rival that of its
proponents, a group that includes
Clinton Hill Councilwoman
Laurie Cumbo, who
said Wallace deserves the
honor because his artistic contributions
still infl uence local
and popular culture decades
after his death.
“He was a Brooklyn icon
then, and remains one to this
day,” Cumbo said in a letter
supporting the co-naming proposal.
Following the full board’s
approval, the application
heads to Council, whose members
will likely give it fi nal approval
next month, according
to a rep for Cumbo.
And the street sign won’t
be the only recent tribute to
Wallace if approved.
This month, hometown
basketball squad the Brooklyn
Nets debuted new uniforms
inspired by the local music
legend, and last year, offi cials
named basketball courts inside
Clinton Hill’s Crispus Attucks
Playground for the rapper.
LIFE AFTER DEATH: CB2’s full board approved a proposal to co-name
a stretch of St. James Place in Clinton Hill after Biggie Smalls roughly
fi ve years after a similar idea fi zzled out amid opposition from some
residents. Associated Press / Mark Lennihan
Back in BIG-ness
CB2 approves co-naming street after ‘Biggie Smalls’
fi ve years after honor originally proposed to panel