The MTA will release limited-edition Biggie MetroCards for his 50th birthday

By Brooklyn Magazine Staff

Christopher Wallace, aka the Notorious B.I.G., would have turned 50 this Saturday and the borough of his birth is spreading love.

The MTA is celebrating Brooklyn’s own by selling 50,000 limited-edition MetroCards honoring the rapper at four Brooklyn stations. Biggie’s face will be splashed across the cards, which will go on sale May 21 at 12:01 a.m. on a “first come, first serve basis.” The cards themselves will be randomly loaded into the MetroCard vending machines, meaning “customers are not guaranteed” to get one, so it’s also a clever ploy by the transit authority to raise a little cash. Hate the game, not the player.

The cards will only be available at subway stations nearby where he lived, including at the Lafayette Avenue C station, Clinton-Washington Avenue C and G stations, and the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center stop. One of the Clinton-Washington stations will also get a Biggie-themed takeover, courtesy of Amazon Music starting, featuring the iconic image of the rapper wearing a crown.

The rap legend, born Christopher Wallace, still looms large in his native neighborhood in spite (or because) of major changes here brought on in part by gentrification. He was just 24 when he was killed in an unsolved 1997 shooting in Los Angeles.

Earlier this year, murals were unveiled in Bed-Stuy marking the 25th anniversary of his death. And, across the river on Saturday, the Empire State Building will change its lights to red and white, with a crown spinning in its mast.