Big Pun Now Has a Bronx Street Corner Named After Him

The Bronx has dedicated the corner of East Fordham Road and the Grand Concourse to Big Pun.

On Monday, legendary Bronx rapper Big Pun was honored by the Bronx, some 21 years after his death. The southwest corner of the intersection of East Fordham Road and the Grand Concourse will now be known as Big Pun Plaza. Councilman Fernando Cabrera commemorated the occasion with a celebratory Instagram post.

"Making history!" he wrote. "Today I dedicated Fordham Road & Grand Concourse SW corner to Bronx rapper Big Pun...honored forever, never forgotten."

Back in 2011, Pun's sister proposed a dedication to the Bronx Community Board, which was unsuccessful. In 2014, a fan used a sign from the New York City Department of Transportation website to unofficially rename the corner of East 163rd Street and Rogers Place "Big Pun Place." The sign was quickly removed. In May 2001, the New York City Council delayed plans to rename a portion of Rogers Place in tribute to Pun. The delay was due to distaste over Pun's lyrical content, which "include[d] profanity and references to violence and drug dealing."

The family of the Notorious B.I.G. went to a local community board to honor Biggie on multiple occasions before the corner of Fulton Street and St. James Place was renamed Christopher Wallace Way in 2019. More recently, an intersection in the South Bronx was renamed after Fred the Godson after his untimely death due to COVID-19.

Born in 1971, Big Pun became the first Latino rapper with an RIAA-Certified Platinum album, his debut Capital Punishment. The album earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album.