Notorious B.I.G limited edition MetroCard on sale Saturday

NEW YORK - Brooklyn's own Notorious B.I.G, a.k.a. Biggie Smalls, a.k.a Christopher Wallace is being honored with a special limited edition MetroCard, the MTA announced.

The MTA has partnered with Rhino Entertainment to produce 50,000 commemorative MetroCards featuring B.I.G's portrait on the reverse. These cards will go on sale on what would have been the late rap legend's 50th birthday at just four subway stations in central Brooklyn. 

Wallace, who grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, was killed in a shooting in California when he was 24. The two studio albums he recorded during his career — Ready to Die and Life After Death — were hugely successful and extremely influential.

At an event in Grand Central Terminal on Thursday, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber called Biggie the "greatest rapper in New York history" and arguably the greatest of all time. 

"We know the Notorious B.I.G — I'm from Brooklyn — and he's the man who coined that amazing phrase, 'Spread love — it's the Brooklyn way,'" Lieber said. "And we thank the Notorious B.I.G for his legacy, especially for Brooklyn, but for all New York."

The special MetroCards will go on sale at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, May 21, 2022, at vending machines at the Lafayette Avenue station on the C line, the Clinton-Washington Avenues station on the C line, the Clinton-Washington Avenues station on the G line, and the Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center station, which serves the 2, 3, 4, 5, B, D, N, R, and Q lines.  

"'Cause Biggie's all about Brooklyn, right?" Lieber said. "That's Biggie's home turf, and that's where we're selling these Notorious B.I.G cards."