(AllHipHop News) New Yorkers may have been denied the opportunity to walk down Christopher Wallace Way in Brooklyn, but a new petition has begun to give the Lower East Side some Hip Hop history. A petition by film location scout and Brooklyn resident LeRoy McCarthy has begun to turn the street corner pictured on The Beastie Boys’ seminal 1989 album Paul’s Boutique after the Hip Hop trio.
McCarthy’s campaign to rename the intersection of Ludlow and Rivington streets in New York City’s Lower East Side neighborhood to Beastie Boys Square is his latest after Brooklyn Community Board 2 rejected his request to have St James Place and Fulton Street co-named Christopher Wallace. McCarthy wants to have one street dedicated to Hip Hop in each of New York City’s five boroughs due to the genre’s lasting impact on the city:
Over the course of 40 years, hip-hop has contributed to the economy, to fashion, tourism, race relations and New York City had projected this onto the world. Where is the recognition from New York City? Has there been any? I don’t see that.
While Christopher Wallace Way was rejected due to the Notorious B.I.G.’s criminal past and vulgar lyrics, The Beastie Boys’ reverence in the area could help their cause. On the famous intersection now is wrap joint Wolfnights and its general manager Vicky Dalva expressed the continued support for The Beastie Boys in the area:
When Adam Yauch passed away, people came here for three or four days putting candles and flowers out, taking photos, really mourning his death. At least one person comes in each week asking if it’s Paul’s Boutique.
This past May, a small park near the Brooklyn childhood home of late Beastie Boys’ member Adam “MCA” Yauch was named “Adam Yauch Park”, a year following his death.
The petition for “Beastie Boy Square” can be viewed and/or signed here