Brooklyn pot shop's 'Notorious' paint job
It was a B.I.G. mistake. A cherished mural of late rap legend and Brooklyn native The Notorious B.I.G. was painted over in Bushwick after a pot shop moved into the building — sparking outrage among proud Brooklynites.
The owners of Emerald dispensary said they were forced to cover the homage — a portrait of a young Biggie Smalls, whose real name was Christopher Wallace — because the state Office of Cannabis Management said it violated advertising regulations.
“We didn’t want to take it down,” Emerald co-founder Christina de Giovanni told The Post.
De Giovanni said the mural — which depicted the “Juicy” rapper as a baby with the word “Brooklyn” in large block letters in the background — had adorned the exterior wall of 85 Suydam St. for about three years before the dispensary moved into the space.
She said they loved the tribute but were warned that leaving the mural in place could jeopardize the store’s opening when state inspectors came by for a visit.
De Giovanni said a compliance officer told her, “If the inspector sees it and says no, you’re going to have to delay your opening.”
She said she was told OCM regulations prohibit any “enticement” in any store signage, including those “affixed to a building or permanent structure” and are “for the purpose of alerting individuals to the location of a retail dispensary.”
Only the name and nature of the business, store hours, address and phone number may be displayed.
Having already navigated the state’s labyrinthine dispensary licensing process since 2022, de Giovanni and co-founder Ray Ramon Roman made the decision to paint over the mural — which de Giovanni insisted they did in removable anti-graffiti paint in the hopes it could be displayed again if OCM changes its policy.
“It was so hard,” she said of the red tape involved in obtaining a license. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done . . . . It’s really unfortunate that we haven’t had the opportunity to get an honest start before getting backlash for something that wasn’t our decision.”
Ahead of Emerald’s ribbon-cutting Monday afternoon, Roman said their grand opening had already been sullied by the backlash against covering up the mural.
“I’ve been living in the neighborhood all my life, 45 years, and I didn’t want to do it. I was kinda scared doing it,” Roman said.
“It hurts. It’s so sad. People keep asking, ‘Why did you do that?’ And we have to explain to them over and over.”
Cynthia Betancas, who lives in the neighborhood and would walk her dog past the mural, said that even vandals always left it alone.
“Mostly people haven’t been respecting murals around here,” she said. “They’ll go and write something on someone else’s art. But people hadn’t put anything on this mural.”
De Giovanni has reached out to the artist, Huetek, and said if the city changes the rules, they’ll bring him back to paint a new one — only this time as an adult to avoid the juxtaposition of the image of a child’s face on a pot shop.
“We don’t want children and cannabis in the same place,” she said. Huetek could not be reached. OCM did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.