A Brooklyn landlord faced backlash for announcing he would be destroying a building featuring a mural of legendary rapper The Notorious B.I.G. in order to renovate it. After a change of heart, fans of the mural will still be able to see Big Poppa’s image on the building.
Samuel Berkowitz, the landlord, turned down $5,000 from the mural’s artists, Naoufal “Rocko” Alaoui and Scott “Zimer” Zimmerman from Spread Art NYC, to keep the building in tact so that the art wouldn’t be gone forever. Instead, Berkowitz asked them for a monthly rental fee of $1,250 to keep the mural up. A petition was started to raise money to save the mural and eventually have it turned into a landmark.
“By landmarking the building the landlord is unable to make any changes to the facade without permission from the Landmarks and Preservation Commission,” the petition said.
“To be honest, he just didn’t know how important Biggie is to Brooklyn,” said Alaoui of the landlord’s initial decision to get rid of the mural. “He’s not a bad guy. A lot of people offered to help financially, but he said he don’t need the money, just the respect of his neighbors.”
Alaoui and Zimmerman painted the mural in 2015, and it can be seen on Bedford Avenue and Quincy Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of the borough.