The Notorious B.I.G.’s estate has closed on a deal to sell a stake in the legendary rapper’s catalog to Primary Wave, the company confirmed on Thursday.
The deal comes weeks after The Hollywood Reporter first broke the news on the deal’s development.. Primary Wave didn’t disclose the financial details of the deal. Sources previously told THR that Biggie’s publishing rights were up for about $100 million, while the master rights were on the table for another 30 to 50 million. Sources said the deal gives Primary Wave 50 percent to both rights, as well as his name and likeness.
Voletta Wallace died last month, and as the Wall Street Journal reported, she reached the deal just before her death.
Biggie is known as one of the greatest and most influential artists in the history of rap, recording hits like “Big Poppa,” “Juicy” and “Hypnotize,” while his 1994 debut album Ready to Die is considered one of the greatest albums of all time. Biggie, whose real name is Christopher Wallace, was tragically killed in Los Angeles in 1997 when he was just 24 years old. Life After Death, the sequel to Ready to Die, came out two weeks after his death and featured the hits “Hypnotize” and “Mo Money Mo Problems.”
Since his death, Voletta Wallace oversaw his estate and worked at preserving her son’s legacy as one of the seminal figures of hip hop. The estate released the posthumous albums Born Again and Duets: The Final Chapter in 1999 and in 2005. She was a producer on the 2009 biopic Notorious as well.
Primary Wave has been one of the most active companies in the catalog acquisition space over the past several years, buying up rights for legendary artists like Whitney Houston, Stevie Nicks, Bob Marley and Luther Vandross.
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