New York City Plans To Rename Streets In Honor Of Notorious B.I.G., Wu-Tang Clan, and Woody Guthrie

Last week, the New York City Council voted to name three streets in honor of New York City native musicians Wu-Tang Clan, Biggie Smalls, and Woody Guthrie. As Gothamist first reported, the council voted unanimously in favor, 48-0, during its final meeting of the year. Mayor Bill de Blasio still needs to sign off on the bills before they’re made official, but once he does, St. James Place between Fulton Street and Gates Avenue in Brooklyn will be co-named Christopher Wallace Way, Staten Island’s Vanderbilt Avenue and Targee Street will become Wu-Tang Clan District, and Mermaid Avenue between West 35th and West 36th streets in Brooklyn’s Coney Island will be Woody Guthrie Way.

Cultural advocate LeRoy McCarthy fronted the efforts to rename the streets after the legendary hip-hop acts. “I’m happy that NYC officials are finally giving the city’s indigenous ‘Hip Hop’ music the respect and recognition that it deserves. It took a long time and lots of hard work to advance the Christopher Wallace Way & Wu-Tang Clan District street co-naming, but ya know what, Hip Hop Don’t Stop,” McCarthy told Gothamist.

As Rolling Stone noted last month, McCarthy also said that if the measure is officially passed, the new street sign will be officially dedicated around Biggie’s birthday on May 21st of next year. “Honoring Biggie symbolizes more than just one man,” McCarthy told Rolling Stone. “It symbolizes a culture. It symbolizes a borough. It symbolizes a people, and hip-hop is worldwide.”

 

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FYI: Biggie Smalls is the Illest. Wu-Tang is for the Children. The vote passed, next up #ChristopherWallaceWay + #Wutangclandistrict. S/O to @cmlauriecumbo @speakercoreyjohnson @cmdebirose #NotoriousBIG #wutangclan This is a @heterodoxxinc vision #HipHopRecognition.

A post shared by Christopher Wallace Way (@christopherwallaceway) on Dec 20, 2018 at 4:25pm PST

Over the years, there have been a handful of artists who helped define their era, who were the manifestation of the time and place in which they existed. The Beach Boys defined the good vibrations of Southern California in the early ’60’s. The Velvet Underground were emblematic of the nascent avant-garde punk scene in lower Manhattan in the late ’60’s and early 70’s. R.E.M. evokes visions of a burgeoning music community in 1980’s Athens, GA. And, of course, no artist embodied the mean streets of Brooklyn in the 90’s more than The Notorious B.I.G.

[H/T Rolling Stone]