Pinpointing Biggie's Crib
A reader steered us to the photographs from a 2003 exhibition at the Robin Rice Gallery in the West Village. The photographer Micheal McLaughlin took a number of atmospheric black-and-white photos of Brooklyn scenes and landmarks, including the childhood home of Biggie Smalls and the Brooklyn Heights apartment of Truman Capote. We know that Capote’s…
A reader steered us to the photographs from a 2003 exhibition at the Robin Rice Gallery in the West Village. The photographer Micheal McLaughlin took a number of atmospheric black-and-white photos of Brooklyn scenes and landmarks, including the childhood home of Biggie Smalls and the Brooklyn Heights apartment of Truman Capote. We know that Capote’s place was on Willow Street and we’ve always been under the impression that Biggie lived on St. James Place in Clinton Hill. Can anyone i.d. the exact address of this apartment building?
BKLYN: Micheal McLaughlin [Robin Rice Gallery]
The fort was no joke back in the day and i do mean that in every sense of the word. shout out to the fg crew . killer ben, ju ju, 50 cent, d whiz, barkim, nat, darby, wemo, sha meik, bb, homo, tiz, just, kuwi, supreme, melly, ant, danger, sha boo, dar mel,ah true, divine, c allah, khalif, inf,bar. bartice, chi chi, drip, mr, preme magnetic, juice, lugo, baby rock, kato, nick, pickles, tyheem, hurk, e rock, razell, addidas, pop, tamel, corky, ceaser,g man, divine, jah,nuke, leon cromer, tt cromer, golf, michael combs, kevin tatum, mel, t butt, hash, jr. black, kev,bush, mitch, un, stan, star, umagisty, lil john, shoe, world, steph, punch, calvin klein, a team, tut, levi, 50 grand,ray ray, zeke, beaver, k von, webo, scootie, big h, sha dell, sha do, igod, maurice, brain, did o, chris, t low, uni, kent, born. Yo, everyone i just named was responsible for brooklyns crime rate being so high back in the day, these are some cats that ran the hood all over bk the eny, the ville, the stuy, red hook, farrahgut, marcy, tomkins, breevoort, etc.
Well Anon 3:49, that would be a problen of your own making.
We’re all entitled to our memories whether you approve or not. As for waxing “nostalgic”, I didn’t see once post that suggested any desire for a return to the old days.
Anon 2:52, your point about contributing is the important one. “Rough times” are in the eye of the beholder, whether one moved to the nabe in the 60s, the 80s, or whatever. I guess I lived through rough times here (survived a couple muggings, avoided a few shootouts). But people are only entitled to pride in something they accomplished. Residency is a fact, not an accomplishment. Working with your neighbors to improve the area is something one can be proud of.
I understand that, and do respect that. It is those who wax nostalgic and romanticize thug life and crime as the real hood that I have a problem with.
what about the residents that lived in these areas during the rough times, and contributed positivity? i think that they have every right to be proud of their residency during the rough times. it’s great that the new wave of residents have decided to move to, and contribute to these communities, but please don’t lose sight of the contributions the long-time and former residents have made. you don’t need to rep the hood in order to respect the hood. understand that.
Exactly my point, claims of “my nabe”, stay out are pointless. “Gentry” is probably not the best term, but it was built for a class of people, on the whole, who were several steps up the register – be them middle class shop owners, or bankers/lawyers, or wealthy magnates.
“Built for the gentry”? Not necessarily. The original landmark documentation for Clinton Hill and Ft. Greene often has info on the occupations of original owners. On my block of smaller brownstones (in Clinton Hill), the original owners included a minister, a bookseller, a fish merchant, etc. – people who provided services to the wealthier denizens on Clinton Avenue. Not exactly gentry. And when I bought in the late eighties, some of my neighbors called ME “a gentrifier” and announced the hood was theirs. I joined the block association and told them to get over it; history marches on….before their tenure, the block was Irish and Italian, etc. And after I introduced myself and started working for the block assn,the “gentrifier” label vanished. I was just one more nutjob restoring a brownstone in Clinton Hill.
Since these nabes were built for the gentry originally in early, middle and late 19th century, should we call those who moved in from the 1940s through the late 1980s “ghettoizers” who replaced the “original” families and then started calling the neighborhoods by different names because they didn’t know better or didn’t care?
The answer to my rhetorical question is “of course not”. It is intended to show how stupid these assertions of who really is a Brooklynite are, and the tossing around of labels like “pre-gentrifier” etc.
People seem to wax nostalgic about the 40-50 year odd period when the neighborhood was a truly rough area, even though there is nothing to be sentimental about. Sad really. Way I see it, the gentrified nabes are more true the original idea of an urban community as it was built 150 odd years ago than the 40 to 50 years marked by crime and decline in services. The difference is now it is racially integrated, though the socioeconomic divide is growing with wealthy yuppies and buppies replacing low income tenants and families.
I remeber the D-Cepts and Lowlifes going at it back in the early 90’s. I didn’t live on this side of Brooklyn back then but I did attend the “High” where many of my colleges were from this very area and were very much active in these gangs. As a kid growing up in the 90’s I remeber thinking about attending Brooklyn Tech. I quickly changed my mind after hearing about the daily crimes that frequently popped off in Fort Greene. I concur that during the early 90’s Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Bedstuy were very very very hood.