ICYMI: Brooklyn Will Dedicate Crispus Attucks Playground B-Ball Courts to Notorious B.I.G.

By Sameer Rao Jul 20, 2017

Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace’s hometown of Brooklyn will honor his legend by dedicating part of one of its playgrounds to the late rapper.  

The New York Daily News reported yesterday (July 18) that New York City will name the basketball courts at Brooklyn’s Crispus Attucks Playgound after Biggie. According to DNAInfo, city council member Robert Cornegy Jr. of New York City’s District 36—which includes part of Biggie’s Clinton Hill neighborhood—initially proposed the change with the city’s Community Board 2 last week.

"Twenty years later, this comes full circle, this renaming of the basketball courts in his honor," Cornegy told the Daily News, referring to the time that has elapsed since Biggie’s death. Cornegy added that he lived in the same apartment building as the rapper and promised his mother, Voletta Wallace, that he would officially commemorate her son’s memory.

DNAInfo reports that Cornegy unsuccessfully tried to rename the corner of St. James Place and Fulton Avenue after the slain MC in 2013. He encountered pushback from neighborhood residents who disliked Biggie’s music.

Crispus Attucks Playground takes its name from the early Black American colonist who was the first person killed by British troops during the Boston Massacre, a precursor to the American Revolutionary War.

Cornegy told the Daily News that the city will dedicate the courts the first week of August, ahead of the August 5 start of an annual basketball tournament held in the rapper’s honor.