New York City is planning to go all out for the upcoming birthday of the late Notorious BIG, who would have turned 50 on May 21. According to reports, there will be several events and activities taking place in the Big Apple on Friday and Saturday to pay tribute to the Big Poppa rapper, starting with a ceremony held at the Empire State Building, which Biggie’s mother, Voletta Wallace, and children, C.J. and Tyanna Wallace are expected to attend.
Lil Kim and Lil Cease are two of the many collaborators who are also said to be showing up, while a tweet from the official Empire State Building revealed that the iconic structure’s lights would be changed to white and red to honor the Hip-Hop icon. “Together with Biggie’s estate, we’ll have a life-size holographic avatar of B.I.G. on the 80th Floor, available for guest viewing and photographs from 4PM-9PM,” the tweet further revealed.
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But it doesn’t stop there as the Barclay Center in Brooklyn will “feature a video montage of him [Notorious BIG] on the sprawling oculus display above the” venue’s entrance. Even NYC MTA is participating in the celebration by allowing fans to purchase MetroCards with Biggie’s likeness from these three subway stations: Atlantic Ave.-Barclays Center, Lafayette Ave., and Clinton-Washington Ave. This comes in addition to a report that there’ll be new murals of the Sky’s The Limit lyricist in different parts of New York, painted by local artists, in partnership with Amazon and the Beautify Earth movement.
Celebrations will continue well into Black Music Month in June, with the Lincoln Center hosting an orchestral tribute, which any member of the public can attend or choose to stream from the comfort of their home on both Twitch and Amazon Music.
And if that wasn’t enough, Bad Boy is also planning to release Biggie’s diamond-selling album Life After Death on vinyl, on top of upgrading his music videos on Youtube, a statement, per Essence, announced. There will be an additional Super Deluxe box set on sale, consisting of “8-LPs, a booklet with rare photos from the album cover shoot, liner notes by Sheldon Pearce, and exclusive reflections from members of the team who worked on the original album.”
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The Christopher Wallace Estate recently teamed up with OneOf, a Web3 company, who are launching an official NFT based on Biggie’s likeness. Speaking of the exciting opportunity, Voletta shared, “We are excited about our partnership with OneOf and their expertise to memorialize my son Christopher with this first official NFT drop to allow his fans to participate in and honor their love of him and his music.”
Josh James, co-founder and C.O.O. of OneOf, followed up with a statement that read, “We’re honored to work with The Christopher Wallace Estate to celebrate the incredible legacy of Biggie Smalls…Using NFT technology, Biggie’s legacy and his outsized impact on music and culture will be forever cemented on blockchain, to be honored and shared with fans around the world and for generations to come.”