Notorious B.I.G. Leaves the Real World to Metaverse

The late rapper’s estate is teaming up with Burst Live Inc. and Surreal Events to build a new virtual environment dubbed “The Brook” — a nod to the artist’s homeland of Brooklyn — that will include a hyper-realistic recreation of the man himself.

Fans will be able to explore the virtual environment, purchase virtual real estate in The Brook, attend concerts, and buy and trade NFTs when the activation launches later this year.

Users will be able to create accounts on The Brook website and access the world from their desktop or mobile devices in order to participate. Later this autumn, the Brook is slated to host activations that will need VR headsets.

Voletta Wallace, Biggie’s mother, said in a statement, “Technology continues to create opportunities that are beyond one’s imagination and I’m excited that we are stepping into the future with a beautiful rendition of a hyperrealistic avatar of my son Christopher,” added, “I’m thankful for our wonderful team of creative partners for their work to deliver Biggie into new media for his fans to enjoy.”

Images and videos of the late rapper were used to build the hyperrealistic Biggie replica. Remington Scott, the CEO of Hyperreal and VFX director best known for his work on Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3, and Elliot Osagie of Willingie Inc. spearheaded the development.

Burst Live Inc. will be in charge of creating content for The Brook, while Surreal Events will be in charge of the platform’s development, hosting, and maintenance. WME, which represents Biggie’s estate, will give assistance for the metaverse initiative.

The Biggie metaverse project is part of an increasing trend of estates creating virtual projects on Web3. The Nelson Mandela Family announced in March that it was launching a metaverse initiative dubbed “A Long Walk to Meta: Mandelaverse,” which would include NFT art collections and a “holographic” banquet in Los Angeles this summer.

Watch the trailer for The Brook, which includes Mark Pitts, Biggie’s former manager, in the lead role.

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