NYPD Has Footage Of Person Who Vandalized Biggie’s St. James Place Mural

The Notorious B.I.G./Biggie Smalls

Fans believe a “gentrifier” was behind the trashing of the black and white portrait.

The New York Police Department believes they know who defaced a mural of deceased rapper the Notorious B.I.G., born Christopher Wallace.

According to the New York Post, the vandalism of the Brooklyn artwork was captured on surveillance footage, released a video late Wednesday.

At midnight on Friday, August 26th, the footage captured the person walking with a white bag to the mural on St. James Place and Fulton Street in Clinton Hill. This is the block where Biggie grew up.

The footage shows him splashing black paint on Biggie’s face and later writing the words in red spray paint over it, “East Coast.”

Officers are looking to track down the suspect who destroyed Vincent Ballentine’s masterpiece on the outdoor wall of the Beauty World Salon.

Ballentine took to social media and spoke about the desecration of his iconic mural.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Vince (@vballentine99)

He captioned a video of the corner, saying, “Done dirty

#disrespect #biggie #brooklyn #graffiti #toy.”

One fan thought it was awful, commenting, “BIG UPS to you bc I was just thinking of the foul treatment of a legend on his namesake … it’s also a straight violation of spectacular art. Thank you for fixing it because we value seeing that on your corner!.”

“It’s the people who gentrified our town Bedstuy,” another one said, despite Biggie actually being from Clinton Hill and possibly hustled in the Stuy. “They need to leave and go back where they came from.”

The person’s whose name is @BottlesUp_Ent went on to say, “I’m 2014 I went on St. James the Junior Mafia to celebrate B.I.G. birthday and was told by some new comer that he doesn’t want his kids to see us in front of the building B.I.G. lives in and he called the cops and we had to leave. This year he couldn’t stop it so I know there are a lot of people like that guy who are upset that the culture is still there. It’s sad but true, we all need to love where we come from before other people come in and treat and claim it as their own.”

New York Mayor Eric Adams even addressed the situation shortly after the mural was vandalized. 

“Biggie is a hero to our community, and that’s darn sure not how you spread love the Brooklyn way, as Biggie would say,” Adams said. “We’re going to look into that and make sure that mural is cleaned up and repaired because this has a place there and it remains there, and we want to find the person responsible.”

We hope the police find the person who violated the King of Brooklyn memorial.

#WellAlwaysLoveBigPoppa