Name Christopher Wallace
Subject Brooklyn · 1991–1997
In the bag. In 1993 he still brought notebooks to the studio, so you may peek.
XXL’s oral history of Ready to Die says he stopped writing his verses down between the album’s two runs of sessions. So his places come here as verses: read them, let them go blank, and put them back.
Snapshots: LBM1948, July 1997 and November 1997, CC BY-SA 4.0. No free photograph of him exists, so this page shows none.
No pen, no pad · 3 verses · 11 places
In 1993 he still brought notebooks to the studio. By 1994 he had learned to keep his verses in his head, without pen or paper.
DJ Premier, who made Unbelievable for $5,000, says he never saw him write anything.
The verses are our game, made of place names, never lyrics. The places, and what is said about them, come from the sources one click away.
Read verse one, then blank the lines.
Finish a verse and its places open here, with photographs and how to visit.
Lafayette Gardens · Bed-Stuy · 1991–1992
DJ 50 Grand’s group, the Old Gold Brothers, was based at the Lafayette Gardens Houses. 50 Grand met Big through his best friend, D-Roc, and cut a demo with him in early 1991.
Mister Cee, Big Daddy Kane’s DJ, polished the tape and took it to The Source.
0 of 4 on the table.
Set out all four and The Source’s Unsigned Hype column runs.
Public housing where people live: pass by on the street. The photograph is the estate’s playground.
Downtown Brooklyn · Clinton Hill
105 Tech Place, Downtown Brooklyn
Jay-Z, The Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes all went to George Westinghouse at around the same time.
Jay-Z has said he and Busta Rhymes had a rap battle in the lunchroom.
Justin Tinsley writes that the once-promising student dropped out of high school to sell drugs, which crushed his mother, a dedicated teacher.
A working school: see it from the street and don’t go in.
Fulton Street between Washington Avenue and St. James Place, Clinton Hill
Easy Mo Bee, who produced on Ready to Die, remembers picking Big up from his stoop on Fulton Street, near St. James.
He also remembers a fried-chicken place on Fulton, between Washington and St. James. DJ Premier remembers seeing him on the corner of Washington and Fulton.
A busy shopping street with the C train underneath at Clinton–Washington Avenues. The chicken place is not named, so it is not marked.
Brooklyn, New York
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St. James Place · named, not mapped
NYC DOT calls St. James Place, where it meets Fulton Street, his childhood street.
Matty C, who wrote him up in The Source, says they found out they lived two blocks apart and started hanging out.
A residential street of private homes: walk it, but the house is not named or mapped here. The photograph is Clinton Hill, not the house.
Hell’s Kitchen · Times Square · 1993–1997
1991–2005 · Hell’s Kitchen
In 1991 the Hit Factory opened in a nearly 100,000-square-foot building here, with a studio on each of its five floors.
Nashiem Myrick says he and Chucky Thompson moved the Big Poppa session to the Hit Factory. Ready to Die was made in two runs: Ready to Die, Gimme the Loot and Things Done Changed in 1993, then the rest when he came back in 1994.
The Hit Factory closed in March 2005 and the building became apartments.
Now an apartment building: see it from the street.
West 44th Street at Eighth Avenue
Daddy’s House, Sean Combs’s studio, is at West 44th Street and Eighth Avenue. XXL calls it the studio where Biggie laid his vocals.
Lil’ Cease remembers a piano in the booth there.
In 2012 its staff said his rooms were left as they had been, and his birthday was a company holiday.
A working studio, not open to visitors. The photograph is Eighth Avenue on the same block, not the studio.
Midtown Manhattan
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Compare toursLos Angeles · March 1997
7 March 1997 · 665 West Jefferson Boulevard, University Park, Los Angeles
The 11th Soul Train Music Awards were held here on 7 March 1997. It was his last public appearance.
On stage with the Bad Boy group, he was booed when he announced Toni Braxton as a winner.
A working concert and awards hall: see it from Jefferson Boulevard, or go to a show.
8–9 March 1997 · 6060 Wilshire Boulevard, Miracle Mile, Los Angeles
On the night of 8 March 1997 Vibe magazine co-hosted a party here after the Soul Train awards.
He was in Los Angeles promoting Life After Death, and wanted to show that the East–West rivalry was overblown.
The fire department shut the party down at about 12:30 a.m. Minutes later, stopped at a red light at Wilshire and Fairfax, he was shot from a passing car. He died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at 1:15 a.m. on 9 March 1997, aged 24. The killing is officially unsolved.
A car museum, open every day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Its ribbon façade was added long after 1997.
6060 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles · See the site
The car museum on Wilshire Boulevard, open every day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tickets on its site.
Plan a visit
Two years before, his friend Tupac Shakur had been shot in the lobby of Quad Studios in Manhattan; a perceived war between Bad Boy and Death Row followed, and Shakur was killed in Las Vegas in September 1996.
Madison Avenue · Clinton Hill · Bed-Stuy · 1997–2024
18 March 1997 · Madison Avenue at East 81st Street, Upper East Side
His funeral, on 18 March 1997, was held here. Police closed the streets around it, and the service was by invitation only.
The chapel opened in 1898; the funerals of Judy Garland and John Lennon were held here too. Life After Death came out about a week later.
A working funeral home: pass by quietly.
18 March 1997 · Clinton Hill
On 18 March 1997 his funeral procession drove through Clinton Hill, where he grew up.
Thousands lined the streets. Police and some mourners clashed, and ten people were arrested.
2015 · 1091 Bedford Avenue at Quincy Street, Bedford-Stuyvesant
In September 2015 Naoufal “Rocko” Alaoui and Scott “Zimer” Zimmerman painted him 38 feet tall, wearing a crown, on a red-brick building here.
Rocko says the corner was one of the young rapper’s hangouts. In 2017 the landlord planned work that would have damaged it. After local support it stayed, a few blocks from his childhood home.
Seen from the pavement. Murals change, so look at recent pictures before making the trip. The photograph is nearby Nostrand Avenue.
June 2019 · St. James Place at Fulton Street, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
Christopher Wallace Way
In June 2019 the block of St. James Place between Fulton Street and Gates Avenue was also named Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace Way.
Hundreds came to the unveiling on a rainy Monday, his mother Voletta Wallace and Lil’ Kim among them. LeRoy McCarthy first proposed it in 2013. The community board turned it down over the lyrics; the City Council voted for it unanimously at the end of 2018.
For the album’s 30th anniversary in September 2024, NYC DOT sold 100 copies of the sign, hand-made at its sign shop in Maspeth, Queens, at $75 each.
A public street corner. The co-naming sign is at Fulton Street and St. James Place; look, then let the block be.
60 Furman Street, Brooklyn · See the site
A hotel on the Brooklyn waterfront at 60 Furman Street, a subway ride from Clinton Hill. Its page showed offers but no nightly rates. Pictured: Clinton Hill.
See roomsWhere it is now
St. James Place, Fulton Street and Lafayette Gardens are a short walk apart in Clinton Hill and Bed-Stuy; Bedford and Quincy is a little further east, and Westinghouse is in Downtown Brooklyn. In Manhattan, West 44th and West 54th are ten blocks apart off Eighth Avenue; Madison and 81st is across the park. The Shrine and the Petersen are a drive apart in Los Angeles.
10 places you can visit, from Fulton Street to Wilshire Boulevard. His childhood home on St. James Place is private, so the street is named, not mapped.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public street corner. The co-naming sign is at Fulton Street and St. James Place; look, then let the block be.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A busy shopping street with the C train underneath at Clinton–Washington Avenues. The chicken place is not named, so it is not marked.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working school: see it from the street and don’t go in.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Public housing where people live: pass by on the street. The photograph is the estate’s playground.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Seen from the pavement. Murals change, so look at recent pictures before making the trip. The photograph is nearby Nostrand Avenue.
St. James Place at Fulton Street, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
In June 2019 the block of St. James Place between Fulton Street and Gates Avenue was also named Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace Way.
A public street corner. The co-naming sign is at Fulton Street and St. James Place; look, then let the block be.
Fulton Street between Washington Avenue and St. James Place, Clinton Hill
Easy Mo Bee, who produced on Ready to Die, remembers picking Big up from his stoop on Fulton Street, near St. James.
A busy shopping street with the C train underneath at Clinton–Washington Avenues. The chicken place is not named, so it is not marked.
105 Tech Place, Downtown Brooklyn
Jay-Z, The Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes all went to George Westinghouse at around the same time.
A working school: see it from the street and don’t go in.
Lafayette Gardens Houses, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
DJ 50 Grand’s group, the Old Gold Brothers, was based at the Lafayette Gardens Houses.
Public housing where people live: pass by on the street. The photograph is the estate’s playground.
1091 Bedford Avenue at Quincy Street, Bedford-Stuyvesant
In September 2015 Naoufal “Rocko” Alaoui and Scott “Zimer” Zimmerman painted him 38 feet tall, wearing a crown, on a red-brick building here.
Seen from the pavement. Murals change, so look at recent pictures before making the trip. The photograph is nearby Nostrand Avenue.
Stay
A waterfront hotel a subway ride from Clinton Hill.
60 Furman Street, Brooklyn · See the site
A hotel on the Brooklyn waterfront at 60 Furman Street, a subway ride from Clinton Hill. Its page showed offers but no nightly rates. Pictured: Clinton Hill.
See roomsGo there
The Petersen on Wilshire, and walks in Brooklyn and Midtown.
6060 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles · See the site
The car museum on Wilshire Boulevard, open every day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tickets on its site.
Plan a visitBrooklyn, New York
Live marketplace results for hip-hop walking tours of Brooklyn. Check each itinerary for the stops it really makes.
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Compare toursWhat’s on
No tribute dates were announced when we checked.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Take it home
An original 1997 Life After Death poster, two biographies, and both albums.
An original 1997 poster for Life After Death. 19.5 × 28 in, rolled, mint.
Sold out · archive reference
View posterJustin Tinsley
Justin Tinsley’s 2022 biography, by the author of the Library of Congress essay.
Find the bookCheo Hodari Coker
Cheo Hodari Coker’s biography.
Find the bookThe Notorious B.I.G. · CD, Bad Boy, 1994
Released 13 September 1994; in the National Recording Registry since 2024.
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Find a copyThe Notorious B.I.G. · 2 × CD, Bad Boy, 1997
Released about a week after his funeral.
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Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
11 of 11 places · 15 of 15 Moments
St. James Place, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn (his childhood home is private and not identified)
Christopher Wallace grows up on St. James Place in Clinton Hill.
The procession drives through Clinton Hill, where thousands line the streets.
St. James Place at Fulton Street, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
His block of St. James Place is co-named Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace Way.
Fulton Street between Washington Avenue and St. James Place, Clinton Hill
Easy Mo Bee picks him up from his stoop on Fulton Street; DJ Premier sees him on the corner of Washington and Fulton.
105 Tech Place, Downtown Brooklyn
He, Jay-Z and Busta Rhymes are at George Westinghouse at around the same time.
Lafayette Gardens Houses, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
DJ 50 Grand, of the Lafayette Gardens-based Old Gold Brothers, cuts a demo with him.
The Source runs the demo in its Unsigned Hype column; Puffy Combs offers a deal at Uptown.
1091 Bedford Avenue at Quincy Street, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Rocko and Zimer paint the mural at Bedford and Quincy.
421 West 54th Street, Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan
Nashiem Myrick and Chucky Thompson move the Big Poppa session to the Hit Factory.
Between the 1993 and 1994 sessions he stops writing his verses down and holds them in his head.
Ready to Die comes out; in 2024 it joins the National Recording Registry.
West 44th Street at Eighth Avenue, Times Square
He records vocals at Sean Combs’s studio, with a piano in the booth.
Madison Avenue at East 81st Street, Upper East Side
His funeral is held at Frank E. Campbell by invitation only.
665 West Jefferson Boulevard, University Park, Los Angeles
He presents at the Soul Train Music Awards, his last public appearance.
6060 Wilshire Boulevard, Miracle Mile, Los Angeles
He leaves a Vibe party at the Petersen and is shot at Wilshire and Fairfax; he dies at 24.
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