In the 1990s, before Brooklyn was a brand, there was a singular bard of the borough, and his name was Christopher Wallace.

At 6 feet 2 inches and nearly 400 pounds, Mr. Wallace, known as the Notorious B.I.G., was a larger-than-life figure in the rap scene. A masterful raconteur with a forceful flow, he chronicled neighborhood street life in stylized, almost cinematic detail, from corner drug deals to fractured family negotiations.

But more than 20 years after Mr. Wallace’s death in a killing that remains unsolved, the gentrification that has taken hold in the Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoods has complicated his legacy. As fans and local activists have sought ways to preserve his memory on the streets that nurtured him, they have repeatedly been stymied by people who considered him too tolerant of violence, too misogynistic, even too overweight, to merit such public recognition.