Voletta Wallace, the mother of the pioneering 1990s rapper The Notorious B.I.G., has died in hospice care at the age of 72.
Biggie Smalls, as he was known to fans, was one of the reigning hip-hop stars of his era until he was murdered in a drive-by shooting in 1997 at the age of 24.
His legend only grew after his death, nurtured by his mother, who successfully ran his estate throughout the remainder of her own lifetime.
By the time of Wallace’s demise, her son’s estate was thought to be worth $160 million, more than 10 times the $10 million it was estimated at when Biggie was killed.
She proved a deft steward of his legacy, even producing his acclaimed 2009 biopic Notorious, in which she was played by Angela Bassett.
Wallace died of natural causes Friday morning in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, the Monroe County Coroner informed TMZ.
Voletta Wallace, the mother of the pioneering 1990s rapper The Notorious B.I.G., has died in hospice care at the age of 72; pictured with her son in an undated throwback
Wallace died of natural causes Friday morning in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania , the Monroe County Coroner informed TMZ; pictured in 2022 on her Instagram
Wallace’s death came months after her shock comments about Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, who is in jail awaiting trial on a string of charges including sexual assault and rape.
In 1993, Biggie – whose real name was Christopher Wallace – had been the first artist to sign with Diddy’s label Bad Boy Records.
Biggie was reportedly working on leaving Bad Boy Records before he was murdered in 1997 in a Los Angeles drive-by shooting that remains unsolved.
Last year, Biggie’s mother revealed her candid reaction to the cascade of sexual abuse allegations being leveled against Diddy.
‘I hope that I see Sean one day and the only thing I want to do is slap the daylights out of him. And you can quote me on that,’ she told Rolling Stone.
‘Because I liked him. I didn’t want to believe all the awful things, but I’m so ashamed and embarrassed,’ Wallace added in the same interview.
She also said she was ‘sick to my stomach’ after seeing the infamous leaked footage of Diddy violently assaulting his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a hotel in 2016.
‘I’m praying for Cassie. I’m praying for his mother. I don’t want to believe the things that I’ve heard, but I’ve seen [the hotel video]. I pray that he apologizes to her,’ Wallace said, adding that Diddy ‘needs to apologize to his mother Janice Combs. ‘I hope to God he sits her down and spills his guts and apologize to her.’
Biggie remained close to his mother throughout the years of his stratospheric fame in the 1990s, when he was regarded as one of the finest rappers in the business
Wallace, who raised her son as Jehovah’s Witness, is pictured in 2007 posing with a wax figure of him at Madame Tussauds in New York – 10 years after Biggie’s murder
She proudly attended the 2019 ceremony when a street was named after him in Brooklyn, posing with his friends and colleagues Lil Kim (right) and Lil Cease (left)
Wallace gave birth to Biggie in 1972 in Brooklyn and raised him there – mostly alone, as her husband left the family when their child was two.
She brought up her son as Jehovah’s Witness and a diligent student, but was unable to prevent his being exposed to the mounting drug crisis in New York.
Amid the spiraling crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s, Biggie fell into drug dealing and spent nine months in jail before emerging and becoming a star.
He remained close to his mother throughout the years of his stratospheric fame in the 1990s, when he was regarded as one of the finest rappers in the business.
Biggie was also a major figure in the East Coast-West Coast rivalry brewing in the hip-hop world, which pitted him against his fellow superstar Tupac Shakur.
After his unsolved murder – which inspires conspiracy theories and wild rumors to this day – Wallace took over the management of her son’s legacy.
She proudly attended the 2019 ceremony when a street was named after him in Brooklyn, posing with his friends and colleagues Lil Kim and Lil Cease.
Wallace was among the producers of the 2009 biopic of her son, Notorious, in which he was played by Jamal Woolard amid a cast that included Derek Luke as Diddy and Anthony Mackie as Tupac Shakur.
Wallace is pictured in 1997 at the Chicago filming of a tribute video to her son, I’ll Be Missing You, made shortly after his murder in a drive-by shooting that remains unsolved
She spent almost every day of the shoot on the set and promoted the movie upon its release, while saying she felt ‘angry’ and ‘sad’ revisiting her son’s turbulent life.
Wallace explained that she initially hoped audiences would see ‘see the man, the father, the son, the friend, the man with the heart condition. When I went in, I saw the father, I saw my son, I saw the friend. The man I was not crazy about.’
She elaborated: ‘The way he treats women, it makes me want to puke. The profanity that comes out of his mouth, it makes me want to puke,’ via Cinemablend.
A few years before her own death, Wallace was asked what she felt her son’s life would be like in the present if he had not been murdered.
‘I try not to think about it, because sometimes, it could be depressing. I always wonder, if my son was here, what would he be doing?’ she told ScreenRant.
‘I told somebody that maybe he would be in jail by now, but I know he would be a successful human being because he spoke about it and it was something that he believed in,’ Wallace added candidly.
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