The Notorious B.I.G.'s childhood home in Brooklyn is for rent
For $4k a month, you can live in a piece of hip hop history.
Gentrification has taken the nation by storm at a rapid pace throughout the decade, pushing tenants out of predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhoods and exchanging them for more affluent, younger white people to drive up property value. Brooklyn has been one of the major cities affected by gentrification, and the latest news is a blow to both hip hop and the Clinton Hill neighborhood.
The Notorious B.I.G.’s childhood home is available to rent for $4,000 a month, according to the New York Post. The third-floor apartment at 226 St. James Place has been renovated from the “one-room shack” Biggie rapped about on “Juicy” to a three-bedroom apartment with a separate dining room and den along with hardwood floors and high ceilings.
“It’s a beautiful home and a fantastic neighborhood, filled with little shops and great transportation,” Compass broker Fabienne Lecole told the Post. “The apartment is iconic… a historical gem.”
Back in 2013, the apartment was sold for $825,000 to the person who is currently renting it out. Lecole described the ever-changing Brooklyn neighborhood as “calm and residential.” “It’s hard to imagine it’s the same street that he sang about with all the drugs and gunfire. It couldn’t be more different.”
Another real estate broker, Kathleen Perkins, told the Post, “The neighborhood is all hipsters and millennials, people in finance, and tech people.”
Earlier this month, the City of New York honored Biggie by renaming the St. James Place between Fulton Street and Gates Avenue, Christopher ‘Notorious B.I.G.’ Wallace Way. The street revealing ceremony was attended by fans, his mother, Voletta Wallace, his children, T’Yanna and Christopher Wallace Jr., friends and members of Junior M.A.F.I.A., including Lil Kim and Lil Cease.