Entering the newly inaugurated Biggie Experience museum in Brooklyn, New York, dedicated to the life of legendary rapper the Notorious B.I.G., visitors immediately find themselves surrounded by a faithful recreation of his childhood bedroom at 226 St. James Place. The Sanyo stereo system mounted to the eggshell-blue colored wall plays Run-DMC and Big Daddy Kane cassettes. An unfinished Welch’s grape juice, a handheld Tetris console and a vintage Motorola pager sit artfully arranged on his nightstand. Timberland boots rest in the closet and an old RCA television plays “Martin” (the 1995 episode featuring Biggie’s cameo appearance, of course). Welcome to the curated, immersive world of the late, great Christopher Wallace.
The Notoriouss Clothing boutique of Wallace’s daughter, 30-year-old fashion designer T’yanna, once occupied the space of the Biggie Experience at 503 Atlantic Avenue. Launched last weekend on the 27th anniversary of B.I.G.’s untimely murder in Los Angeles, the Biggie Experience represents his daughter’s latest effort to keep his legacy alive: a virtual museum full of rap tchotchkes, replicas of significant locales and citations explaining the highlights of his career. Coming on the heels of recent career retrospectives in the borough focused on Jay-Z (at the Brooklyn Library) and Spike Lee (at the Brooklyn Museum), the Biggie Experience rides the zeitgeist.
“When T’yanna called and said, ‘I want to do something for my dad; I want it to be dope, intimate, interactive,’ how could I say no?” explains Krystal “K.G.” Garner, co-founder of the AK-08 creative agency that helped curate and create the Biggie Experience along with designer Greg “Rich Bizarre” Simmons. “This was just a slingshot clothing store. Everything in here we built: walls, shelves, everything. The whole museum is meant to be super immersive and interactive. We want to tell [Biggie’s story] as authentically and dope as possible. Not just another boring museum, but something that you feel like you got something out of — like, ‘Oh my god, I really felt that energy from Big.’ ”
Walking through Biggie’s replicated bedroom door brings visitors to the front of a recreated bodega from the corner of Fulton Street and St. James Place, where Wallace, at the tender age of 19, lyrically annihilated another MC in a famous freestyle battle that lives in infamy on YouTube. An adjacent glass case displays the 1995 Source Award for his debut album, “Ready to Die,” limited-edition “Ready to Die” Filas, a “Deadpool” comic book with Big posing alongside the superheroic “merc with a mouth” and more. Visitors can seat themselves on a red velvet-clad golden throne (which fans will recognize from B.I.G.’s “One More Chance” remix video), snapping selfies while flanked by flickering faux candles. The Biggie Experience features eight such interactive exhibits in all.
“I came up with this idea to open the museum because I want my dad’s fans, as well as people who aren’t familiar with who he is, to really get to know Biggie on a musical and personal level by having access to an intimate experience,” reads a statement from T’yanna Wallace. “Reading about him on paper is cool [but] a visual museum would make people want to connect in person.”
At its opening, VIP invitees raised shot glasses of D’ussé cognac in the furthest reaches of the Biggie Experience as former Biggie comrade and Junior M.A.F.I.A. rapper Lil Cease walked through the door to pay his respects. An overflow of guests spilled out onto Atlantic Avenue, heading to a party across the street where the celebrating continued. With last year’s 50th anniversary of hip-hop receding in the rearview, installations like the Brooklyn Library’s expired “Book of Hov” tribute to Jay-Z and the now indefinitely ongoing Biggie Experience museum keep the conversation about some of the greatest artists the culture has ever produced alive.
Miles Marshall Lewis (@MMLunlimited) is an author and Harlem-based cultural critic whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Rolling Stone and many other outlets. Lewis is currently finishing a cultural biography of comedian Dave Chappelle, his follow-up to Promise That You Will Sing About Me: The Power and Poetry of Kendrick Lamar.
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