HELL'S KITCHEN — The longtime home of the recording studio where Biggie Smalls, Jay-Z and other rap luminaries recorded some of their greatest albums is no more.
D&D Studios, at 320 W. 39th St., was the birthplace of such seminal hip-hop albums such as "Illmatic" by Nas, "Reasonable Doubt" by Jay-Z and "Ready to Die" by Notorious B.I.G. It was also home of the famed record producer DJ Premier.
The studio was forced to close so the landlord could get a higher-paying tenant.
“They were paying below market rent and they had termination clause and we terminated the lease,” Ray Yadidi, whose Sioni Group bought the building in June, told DNAinfo New York.
DJ Premier, whose real name is Christopher Edward Martin, said on his blog that he was moving to Kaufman Astoria Studios, and he posted photos on Instagram of the studio shutting down on Jan. 5.
The closure was first reported in an interview with DJ Premier in the New York Observer.
He posted a picture of the demolished studio with the hashtag: “#RichClownsRuinManhattan.”
Sioni bought the building for $36 million, according to city documents. Yadidi’s business partner Isaac Chetrit, part of the Chetrit family, faced a lawsuit in 2013 for evicting tenants in a building he bought on West 47th Street, according to The Real Deal.
Chetrit and Yadidi have been buying up properties in Hell’s Kitchen for years, including 240 W. 37th St. in 2009, according to the Commerical Observer, and 12-story property at 145 W. 45th St. in November, according to The Real Deal.
