Entertainment
The Biggie Experience is “one more chance” to celebrate one of hip-hop’s greatest artists
Entrance to the newly opened Biggie Experience Museum in Brooklyn, New York, dedicated to the life of legendary rapper Notorious BIG, visitors are immediately surrounded by a faithful reproduction of his childhood bedroom at 226 St. James Place. A Sanyo stereo system mounted on an eggshell blue wall plays Run-DMC and Big Daddy Kane cassettes. Welch’s unfinished grape juice, a conveyable Tetris console, and a vintage Motorola pager are artfully arranged on his bedside table. Timberland boots are within the closet and an old RCA TV is playing “Martin” (obviously the 1995 episode wherein Biggie makes a cameo appearance). Welcome to the curated, immersive world of the late, great Christopher Wallace.
Wallace’s daughter’s Notorious Clothes boutique, 30-year-old clothier T’yanna, formerly occupied the Biggie Experience space at 503 Atlantic Avenue. Opening this past weekend on the twenty seventh anniversary of BIG’s premature murder in Los Angeles, the Biggie Experience represents his daughter’s latest efforts to keep his legacy alive: a virtual museum full of rap tchotchkes, replicas of significant locations and quotes explaining the highlights of his profession . Following recent profession retrospectives within the borough specializing in Jay-Z (on the Brooklyn Library) and Spike Lee (on the Brooklyn Museum), the Biggie Experience keeps up with the times.
“When T’yanna called and said, ‘I want to do something for my dad; I want it to be fun, intimate and interactive. How could I refuse?” explains Krystal “KG” Garner, co-founder of creative agency AK-08, who helped curate and create the Biggie Experience with designer Greg “Rich Bizarre” Simmons. “It was only a slingshot clothing store. We built every thing here: the partitions, the shelves, every thing. The entire museum is designed to be extremely engaging and interactive. We want to tell (Biggie’s story) as authentic and funky as possible. Not just one other boring museum, but something that you’re feeling such as you got something out of – like, “Oh my God, I really felt this energy from Big.” ”
Passing through a replicated Biggie’s bedroom door, visitors find themselves on the front of a recreated wine bar on the corner of Fulton Street and St. James Place, where Wallace, on the age of 19, lyrically annihilated one other MC in famous freestyle battle who lives in infamy on YouTube. An adjoining glass case displays a 1995 Source Award for his debut album “Ready to Die,” a limited edition “Ready to Die” Filas, a “Deadpool” comic book with Big posing alongside the superhero “Merc with a Mouth,” and more. Visitors can sit on a golden throne covered in red velvet (which fans will recognize from B.I.G.’s “One More Chance” remix music video.), taking a selfie surrounded by flickering artificial candles. There are a complete of eight such interactive exhibits on the Biggie Experience.
“I came up with the idea of opening a museum because I want my dad’s fans, as well as people who don’t know who he is, to really get to know Biggie on a musical and personal level, having access to an intimate experience,” T’yanna’s statement read Wallace. “Reading about it on paper is cool (but) a visual museum will make people want to connect in person.”
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During the opening, invited VIPs raised glasses of D’ussé Cognac to the far corners of the Biggie Experience, while former Biggie comrade and younger MAFIA rapper Lil Cease walked through the doors to pay their respects. Crowds of guests spilled onto Atlantic Avenue, heading to the party across the road where the celebration continued. While last 12 months’s fiftieth anniversary of hip-hop has faded into oblivion, installations just like the late Jay-Z tribute “Book of Hov” on the Brooklyn Library and the now-permanent Biggie Experience museum keep the conversation alive about some of the greatest cultural artists ever produced alive.
Miles Marshall Lewis (@MMLunlimited) is a Harlem-based author and cultural critic whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Rolling Stone, and lots of other magazines. Lewis is currently completing a cultural biography of comedian Dave Chappelle, the sequel to Promise That You Will Sing About Me: The Power and Poetry of Kendrick Lamar.