Last week, Shane Rossi, a hip hop fan from the Bronx, installed a $35 custom street sign he got from the NYC DOT and marked the intersection between 163rd and Rogers Place as”Big Pun Place” after one his favorite MC’s Big Punisher, a Puerto Rican rapper from Soundview projects in the BRonx.
When rapper Christopher Lee Rios died two months before the release of his second full-length album Yeeeah Baby, it left the Bronx without their most popular and talented MC. You can ask anyone who has ever heard an album or verse from “the first Latin rapper who can baffle your skull” and they will tell you of his cutting wordplay, how he shined on every feature he was ever on, and how it seemed he could go on rapping for minutes on end without taking a single breath.
Fans and even Pun’s own sister have tried to get the intersection named after the artist formerly known as Big Moon Dawg for years with community boards continuing to reject the idea. This is not the only case here in NYC, as over the past few months LeRoy McCarthy has attempted to get community boards in Manhattan and Brooklyn to have streets named after The Notorious B.I.G and The Beastie Boys. Rossi decided not to bother with filing paperwork and pleading with community boards, and just took matters into his own hands.
