The Notorious B.I.G. is coming back to life in the metaverse.
The estate of the late rapper, born Christopher Wallace, is working with Burst Live Inc. and Surreal Events to create a new virtual world called “The Brook” — a reference to the artist’s hometown in Brooklyn — that will feature a hyper-realistic model of the man himself. The activation is expected to launch later this year and will allow fans to explore the virtual environment, purchase virtual real estate in The Brook, attend concerts, and buy and sell NFTs.
To participate, users will be able to create accounts via The Brook website and can access the world on their desktop or mobile devices. The Brook is also expected to have activations later this fall that will require VR headsets.
“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,” Voletta Wallace, Biggie’s mother, said in a statement. “I’m thankful for our wonderful team of creative partners for their work to deliver Biggie into new media for his fans to enjoy.”
The hyperrealistic model of Biggie was created from images and videos of the late rapper. The development was led by Remington Scott, the CEO of Hyperreal the VFX director best known for his work on Gollum in The Lord of The Rings and in Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3, and Elliot Osagie of Willingie Inc.
Burst Live Inc. will be responsible for producing content that will appear on The Brook, while Surreal Events will handle the development, hosting and maintenance of the platform. Biggie’s estate is represented by WME, which will provide support for the metaverse project.
The Biggie metaverse project follows a growing number of estates working to create virtual projects on Web3. In March, the Nelson Mandela Family announced it was creating a metaverse project, called “A Long Walk to Meta: Mandelaverse,” with NFT art collections and a “holographic” gala expected to take place in L.A. this summer.
Watch the trailer for The Brook project below, which features the voice of Biggie’s former manager, Mark Pitts.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
