The Notorious B.I.G.’s Family Is Suing Target And Home Depot Over Prints Of ‘The King Of New York’

The Notorious B.I.G.‘s estate has filed a lawsuit against Target, Home Depot, and more, arguing that canvas prints of a famous photo of the rapper were sold by the companies without authorization.

According to Billboard, the photo at issue — titled “The King Of New York” and taken by Barron Claiborne days before his death — was illegally reproduced by iCanvas and sold a list of retailers including Bed Bath & Beyond, Home Depot, Nordstrom, and Target.

“Defendants specifically chose to use Mr. Wallace’s persona, name, image, likeness … in an attempt to capitalize on their fame and extraordinary financial value,” reads the lawsuit, which includes both B.I.G.’s estate and Claiborne as plaintiffs. “Mr. Wallace’s fan base has continued to expand since his passing. Mr. Wallace’s persona, name, image, likeness, and artistic works are so well known that they are almost universally and instantly recognizable, even by those born after he died.”

When contacted about the photo, the estate writes, Target and Home Depot did remove it from their inventory, but Bed Bath & Beyond and iCanvas continued selling it for the past eight years. The instance joins a string of recent incidents of copyright infringement involving deceased rappers such as MF DOOM.

“The King Of New York” is considered one of the most well-known images of the late Christopher Wallace, featuring the rotund rapper adorned with a plastic crown in front of a red backdrop. A mural in his home neighborhood, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, is based on the photo, and the crown from it even sold for over half-a-million dollars at auction in 2020.