Landlord Taking Down Biggie Smalls Mural Unless Fans Come Up With Big Money

There's a big mural of The Notorious B.I.G. on the side of a Brooklyn brownstone near where the late rap legend grew up.

But it won't be up for much longer.

The property's landlord Samuel Berkowitz is renovating the building and needs to take the art down to add new windows.

The group Spread Art NYC offered Berkowitz $5000 to save the mural.  But he countered with $1250 a month, which Spread Art can't afford.

"Why should I keep it?” Berkowitz said of the mural when asked by DNA New York. “I don’t even see the point of the discussion. I could demolish the building if I wanted to, I don’t need no permission from anyone except the DOB [Department of Buildings].”

A few updates on "king Of NY" Mural: we just want everyone to know that Spread Art NYC, your humble community Art organization has been working real hard to keep this mural up for the past year! Landlord always calls us and Claims that the neighbors are complaining about the mural and the crowds it attracts. About 4 months ago, he told us about the construction he will be doing which will damage the mural in the process. He will be opening Windows on the wall to increase rent profit by $500 according to them. Today Spread Art NYC offered $5000 (which we planned to gather from the community and the fans) not to open the windows. Unfortunately, that offer was declined and it was answered by a counteroffer of $1250 a month. At this point, there is nothing Spread Art NYC can do to save this mural. We will continue to serve our neighborhoods regardless!! Community is our goal, we like to give back and we thought A biggie mural at the corner of #bedfordandquincy was needed to keep the culture alive, to keep Brooklyn Alive. We always say, Brooklyn is Biggie and Biggie is Brooklyn. A landlord can NEVER change that! We want to thank everyone for the love! We promise, we GOT YOU!!!#spreadartnyc #20bigyears #bedstuy #bedfordstuyvesant #biggie #kingofny #livefrombedfordstuyvesant #spreadloveitsthebrooklynway

A post shared by Spread Art NYC (@spreadartnyc) on May 15, 2017 at 4:41pm PDT