Editor’s Note: The following is an extended version of the story that appears in our print edition dated April 15-18, 2021.

 

Meet me on the corner of the plaza… you mean Big Pun Plaza? Twenty-one years after his untimely passing at just 28 years of age, the Grammy-nominated rapper, Big Pun, has a piece of his native Bronx turf named after him. The popular intersection of Fordham Road and the Grand Concourse located between Fordham Manor and Fordham Heights, is now known as Big Pun Plaza.

 

The Puerto Rican artist was celebrated on March 22 in front of a peaceful crowd that included some well-known faces. Hip Hop pioneers, Grand Master Caz and Kool DJ Red Alert, were in attendance, as were District 14 City Councilman Fernando Cabrera and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr.

 

Long before the release of his platinum-selling debut studio album, Capital Punishment, Big Pun had pledged his allegiance to The Bronx. The proof was in his lyrics, as when he recited the bar, “The king of New York lays his crown in the Boogie Down.”

 

Liza Rios is Big Pun’s widow and knew him since they were teens. “He would probably be doing backflips now, if he could,” she said, smiling. “Actually, he’s here… he’s feeling it. He’s happy. This is what he wanted.”

 

Rios was a moving force behind the plaza’s renaming. “I dedicated my life to give this man [even after death] whatever he wanted,” she told celebrating fans. “I am excited that we were able to make this happen. He is well-deserving of it. He’s a legend, and we are here to stay forever.”

 

The event featured DJ Doo Wop spinning on “the Ones and Twos” as well as friends and family of the lyricist known for his multi-syllabic rhyme scheme and incredible breath control.

 

Big Pun’s son, Chris Rios, was only six when his father died, and recalled being impressed by the masses of fans who showed up at his father’s funeral to mourn him. “Today, again, I get to see him be immortalized ever further beyond that,” he said. “This is the place [The Bronx] he was born at, the place he died at, and the place that he became an immortal. To see the fact that he got a street named after him, I know that he is shining down and smiling right now.”

 

The street co-naming ceremony was originally scheduled for February 8. However, Mother Nature had different plans on that day, and inclement weather forced a cancellation. But some would argue that there isn’t an expiration date on greatness.

 

“Top of the world Ma! Top of the world!” shouted rapper and Big Pun’s best friend, Cuban Link. “That’s where he wanted to be [memorialized in The Bronx]. He wanted to go out like a gangster and a gentleman, and we celebrate with him today. He got his own street now. Oh wait! He doesn’t have a street; he has a plaza! That’s even better!”

 

When reminiscing about the good old days, when his comrade was alive, Cuban Link said that every day with Big Pun was special. “Every day with Pun was happy days,” he said. “He just had that humor. We used to make each other giggle in our own personal space with our own personal jokes. All he had to do was look at me and it was over! We had that chemistry, where we already knew. That’s hard to find.”

 

For Rios’ supporters, his memorialization is a long time coming. A decade ago, the rapper’s family members were rebuffed when they met with Community Board 2, requesting that the corner of Rogers Place and E. 163rd Street in Longwood be renamed for him.

Board 2 members and other local leaders had argued that Big Pun didn’t give back enough to the community during his lifetime to deserve the honor of a street renaming. Other residents argued that memorializing him would serve to promote the lifestyle he talked about in his lyrics, some of which were about drugs and violence.

 

Big Pun [Punisher] was born Christopher Lee Rios on November 10, 1971. The native son of Soundview died from a heart attack, coupled with respiratory failure on February 7, 2000. The rapper had struggled with obesity for most of his adult life, despite efforts to address it. It has been reported by various sources that he weighed 698 pounds at the time of his death.

 

Big Pun’s second album, Yeeeah Baby, dropped posthumously in April of the same year, and just like his previous project, it was certified platinum. But although Big Pun’s life may have been cut short, Liza Rios feels that a lot can be learned from her husband’s passing.

 

“Soon enough, everyone will know the full story of his life,” she said. “But I would say that self-love [is what people should be taking away from his death]. We got to learn how to love ourselves.”

 

Rios continued, “Pun had a lot of obstacles, and the one thing that he didn’t do was love himself,” she revealed. “The whole world loved him, but he had to love himself. It’s the one thing that I learned from Pun. I always advocate self-love.”

 

Big Pun’s son, Chris Rivers, gave an interview posted on AllHipHopTV in November 2017, where he discusses his father’s past alleged domestic violence, which he wrote about in his single, Fear of my Crown, and which he said he felt was necessary to write in order to counter what he called was the fortification of an incomplete perspective of his father, and in the context of the #MeToo movement. In a separate interview with DoggieDiamondsTV, Rivers and his mother also talk about the rapper’s legacy.

 

Since the street renaming took place, some residents have taken issue with the naming of the street, by voicing their views on social media. One resident said on Facebook, “They should have put the name [Big Pun] on his block, not on Fordham. No one is going to call Fordham Road, ‘Big Pun Plaza.’ That is just ridiculous. Fordham Road is always gonna be call[ed] Fordham Road.”

 

Norwood News reached out to the Bronx Borough President’s office to ask how the decision in terms of the street location. A representative referred us to City Councilman Fernando Cabrera’s office, saying the councilman was the person who really coordinated the event.

 

Norwood News therefore reached out to the councilman’s office about the decision and were referred to Cabrera’s comments made during the renaming ceremony. A video of the event can be viewed here, and a documentary published on YouTube by AllThings HipHop about the late rapper can be viewed here.

 

In it, his sister recounts the story of an attendee at her brother’s funeral who said to her that he had never met Big Pun but said, “What he did, everything he accomplished, he gave a lot of us hope, a lot of us from The Bronx that don’t think we can do it. I think I can do it.”

Capital Punishment

by Big Pun

 

*Síle Moloney contributed to this story.