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]
damn, i haven’t heard talk about the d-cepts in years. you’re bringing back memories of 8-ball jacket drama.
snatchyachainville represent.
rumor has it that he used to live on the first floor of the building I live in, on carlton between myrlte and willoughby. i have no proof, but that’s what I was told and we all stand by it…
Anon 7:58 is me
Thanks Anon 3:57, That brings back memories. Biggie rapping right there on Fulton St.
Ballin’, as a pre-gentrifier you sound like someone scared to leave their home when the street lights went on. There were no projects where Bklyn Tech’s field is, just an overgrown lot. The closest thing to projects over there were/are the white, low-income buildings along Atlantic Ave. Those were being held down by the D-Cepts and when they tried to move east they got their a$$’es shot up and their sneakers taken for trophies.
I’ll agree that Biggie was “slangin” for scraps. That’s because the area was held down by a few old-school brothers with real Mafia conections. These guys lived in the nabe and weren’t letting anybody so much as take a cut of a welfare check from a crack whore, without paying them off first. Headquarters was the back room of the whole in a wall, candy store on Putnam. Those old ladies sitting in front of the building across the street all day, were getting paid to report everything they saw.
Like Glarph, I remember when all of this area was called Bed Stuy*. The readoption of Clinton Hill as a neighborhood name came along with Landmark designation. The early renovators who had foresight to stay here, do the hard work needed to GET landmark designation and generally stick with the program felt a name other than Bed Stuy – in the early seventies nationally synonomous with vicious riots and looting – might be a good boost to promote interest in the area.
*Someone once told me the Fordham Baldies were up in Ft. Greene park looking for trouble and that I’d better get home. Given how nasty it was then, I had NO trouble keeping away, Baldies or no. The place was full of hypodermics and a bunch of probably imaginary thugs from the Bronx were the least of our troubles.
So what if someone is “from” Brooklyn or not. It’s not as if any of us built this neighborhood or others in the Borough. What’s up with the hatin’? If we start this “who’s got more history here or lived here longer” stuff, next thing you know, someone will be saying they’re part of the native American tribe that lived her before European settlement. Then someone will go really old school and claim Clovis people lineage and start talking about how they used to make stone arrowheads by the Gowanus canal back when everyone else was hunting mammoths in Alaska. lol Seriously, I hope the posts above are in jest.
FGWG, you are correct, i am not from Brooklyn. I moved to Clinton Hill in 1993. Clearly your are not from the area either, as you refer to Clinton Hill with an (s).
As a pre-gentrifier, i’m sure you’re aware of the projects that predate Brooklyn Tech’s football field and track on Vanderbilt and Fulton. Those projects are where the real _hit was going on. B.I.G and the rest of the Junior Mafia were just catching stragglers and scraps before they could make it to the PJs.
Things change. If you look at old Brooklyn Daily Eagle articles from the 19th century, they refer to the area as “The Hill” and “Clinton Hill”, even some parts of what we call Fort Greene. Williamburg was called the “Eastern District” in some old articles, so clearly things are somewhat fluid over the years.
Sit down “Ballin”
Clearly you’re NOT from Brooklyn. St.James and Fulton was considered a transition area, So if you’re from (Pre-gentification)BROOKLYN like B.I.G.and if you said that block and claimed Bed Stuy OR Clinton Hills no one would raise an eyebrow.
FGWG