E. 163rd St. and Rogers Place in the South Bronx is hallowed ground for fans of early hip hop.
That’s home turf of the Big Punisher, “Big Pun”, a pioneer of 1980‘s South Bronx rap back when SoBro was nothing but burning cars, box cutters and crack pipes. He lived homeless for awhile.
But diligence paid off and his 1998 debut album Capital Punishment became the first album by a solo Latino rap artist to go platinum, hitting #5 on the BILLBOARD chart.
Capital Punishment was nominated for a Grammy Award, too.
Alas, his good fortune was not to endure. At a body weight of 698 pounds and the age of only 28, Big Pun died of a heart attack on February 7, 2000. His kid sister Nicole is now leading the campaign to have 163rd and Rogers renamed BigPunPlace, and I was at the rally on Saturday.
You can sign their petition here:
Nicole and her Mother pitch Community Board 2 on April 16th. R.I.P. Respect Into Pun and Buena suerte, Nicole.
Citation needed.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing I’ve found anywhere to support that allegation, so you’ll have to offer a citation and the link to it or I’ll take your comment down.
The available biographies online tend to give just the opposite impression. For instance...
From: http://www.bigpunforever.com/bio.html
“While staying in a hotel with his family while his home was being renovated, Big Pun died of a heart attack and respiratory failure on the afternoon of February 7, 2000. His last heartfelt words were to his wife Liza, who has continued to stay committed to the memory of her husband and the father of her children.”
From the NY Times obituary:
ReplyDelete"Mr. Rios, who lived in the Bronx with his wife, Liza, and his children, Christopher, Vanessa and Amanda, was staying with his family at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in White Plains, N.Y., while their home was being renovated. He suddenly had trouble breathing, and paramedics could not revive him. He was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital."
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F07E1D8153EF93AA35751C0A9669C8B63