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 cannabis dispensary said they were forced to cover the homage — a portrait of a young Biggie Smalls, whose real name was Christopher Wallace — because the New York Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) said it violated advertising regulations.
“We didn’t want to take it down,” Emerald dispensary co-founder Christina De Giovanni told The Post about the mural, which depicted the “Juicy” rapper as a baby with the word “Brooklyn” in large block letters in the background.
De Giovanni said the mural had adorned the exterior wall of 85 Suydam St. for about three years before the dispensary moved into the space, which had previously been a church called House of Pray.
She said they loved the tribute and wanted to keep it up, however, the (OCM), which regulates the sale of legal marijuana in the Empire State, warned them that leaving the mural in place could jeopardize the store’s opening when state inspectors came by for a visit.
“[The state compliance officer] said, ‘if the inspector sees it and says no, you’re going to have to delay your opening,’” De Giovanni said.
She said was told OCM regulations prohibit any “enticement” in any store signage.
The rules state that this includes outdoor signs that are “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 of the business, nature of the business, store hours, address and phone number are allowed to be displayed, according to the regulations.
Having already navigated the state’s labyrinthine dispensary licensing process since 2022, De Giovanni and her co-founder Ray Ramon Roman made the heartbreaking decision to paint over the mural — which De Giovanni insisted they did in removable anti-graffiti paint in the hopes it could one day 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, both in person and online.
“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. We had a lot of backlash on Reddit. I don’t even want to read it.”
Cynthia Betancas, who lives in the neighborhood and would walk her dog past the mural, said that even vandals always left it alone — despite targetting other street art.
“There was nothing wrong with it. It goes with the shop. It represents someone from Brooklyn,” she told The Post.
“It was there for the longest time, and people have been respecting it. Mostly people haven’t been respecting murals around here. They’ll go and write something on someone else’s art. But people hadn’t put anything on this mural.”
Another local, Kailey Finn-Puetz called it “sad.”
“I really liked the mural. I think it was lovely. Any time art gets covered up, it’s sad,” she said.
Najee McFarland-Drye blasted the OCM’s regulations as idiotic.
“That’s such a stupid law,” he said. “We should let businesses leave the artwork on the wall.”
A post on the Brooklyn subreddit showing the now-covered-up mural also drew dozens of scornful comments.
“How could you possibly cover that up? F–k that dispensary!” one user responded.
“Wow. They really aren’t from around here,” wrote another.
De Giovanni said that they plan to work with OCM and hope to eventually restore the mural.
“Our next move is to work with regulators to try to change this,” she said.
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 any backlash over the problematic juxtaposition of the image of a child’s face on the outside of a store that sells weed.
“We don’t want children and cannabis in the same place,” she said.
Huetek could not immediately be reached.
OCM did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The award-winning rapper came up through the streets of Bed-Stuy, ascending to the throne as one of the most influential hip-hop artists of the 1990s, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time.
His lyrics contained frequent references both to his native Brooklyn and his penchant for cannabis.
He was a key figure in that decade’s infamous East Coast-West Coast hip-hop feud.
Six months after fellow rap icon Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas, Wallace was murdered in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997, at the age of 24.
In 2019, the corner of St. James Place and Fulton Street was dubbed “Christopher Wallace Way” in his honor, following a controversial, years-long effort by local activists.
A 38-foot mural of Wallace at 1093 Bedford Ave. — which features the “Hypnotize” rapper wearing a crown and gold chain — was unveiled by artists Naoufal “Rocko” Alaoui and Scott “Zimer” Zimmerman in 2015. It still remains a popular tourist draw.