The Brooklyn apartment of Notorious B.I.G. has been put up for sale for $1.7 million. The rapper, born Christopher Wallace, first bought the apartment in the Fort Greene neighborhood in 1994. He lived in the apartment with his wife Faith Evans, and her daughter, Chyna Tahjere Griffin, according to the New York Post. It was in this apartment that Biggie released his famous album: “Ready to Die.”
The apartment is a two-bedroom, two-bathroom duplex just blocks away from the street he was named after. The city has depictions and murals of the rapper, who is also known as Biggie Smalls, according to Compass, the selling agency.
“The downstairs lower level features a large bedroom, home office, custom dressing room with built-in shelving and hanging racks as well as a large separate laundry room. The primary bathroom is a sanctuary from the city with both an oversized walk-in shower and freestanding deep soaking tub. Additional architectural elements abound which include custom built shelving as well as exposed wooden beams in the ceiling,” according to Compass.
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Two years ago, Biggie’s childhood apartment went up for rent for $4,000 per month. It was a one-room shack in Brooklyn that has been renovated and is now listed as a gentrified three-bedroom home.
Biggie’s Fort Greene home is currently owned by Caroline Duncan, a notable costume designer who has worked on award-winning series including “The Affair” and “When They See Us.” She undertook a major renovation of the apartment after she purchased it in 2011 for nearly a million dollars. The apartment now has amenities like a custom library, walk-through closets, and tons of lofted space.
Other features include an oversized living and dining space, a chef’s kitchen, 12-foot-high ceilings, an immense arched window, a wood-burning brick fireplace, and large timber beams.
“When I moved in, the basement was just a raw space with concrete floors,” Duncan told The Post. “I framed and put up all the walls and created a bathroom with barn wood and modern finishes, a massive walk-through closet to showcase my collection of clothing and accessories, a laundry room and bedrooms.”
“Upstairs had been carved into a series of puzzling small rooms so I did the opposite, and knocked down all the walls to create a lofted open space,” she added. “I loved the neighborhood, the proximity to Fort Greene Park, the fact that the building is on the Historic Register and had the bones of a true artist’s residence.”
Biggie was the only child of his immigrant Jamaican parents. He was born in 1972 in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. He was discovered by the Legendary DJ Mister Cee.
He was murdered in a drive-by shooting on a Los Angeles street in the early hours of March 9, 1997. He was pronounced dead after he was rushed to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. His death remains unresolved to date.
Take a look inside his Brooklyn apartment:
Photos: Compass
