Voletta Wallace, Notorious B.I.G.'s mother and keeper of his legacy, dies at 78

NEW YORK (AP) — Voletta Wallace, the dedicated mother of the late great rapper The Notorious B.I.G. and protector of his legacy, died Friday morning. She was 78.

Monroe County Coroner Thomas Yanac confirmed her death Friday to The Associated Press, saying she died at her home in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, after a stint on hospice care. She died of natural causes.

A representative for the estate of The Notorious B.I.G. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Notorious B.I.G., one of the rap’s greatest performers, was shot to death at age 24 in Los Angeles in 1997. The case remains unsolved. He was survived by his wife, the musician and actress Faith Evans, and his two children, Christopher Jordan Wallace and T’yanna Dream Wallace.

Wallace was a dedicated keeper of the legacy of her son, born Christopher Wallace. When he first emerged on the scene as one of rap's most distinctive talents with songs that expertly detailed street life in Brooklyn, she labeled his music “noise.”

Since his death, his gift took on a new meaning for her. She told AP in 2017, 20 years after his death, “I remembered my son said, ‘Don’t listen to my music.’ And I never listened to his music. I heard it on the radio and it sounded good, because it was clean. But I said, ‘You know what, I have to. I have to listen to that music.’ And that’s what I did."

“I cried so much that day just listening to the music. I remember I sat, I stood. I rested my head on the stereo and I just cried like a baby. And that was therapy for me. And I said, ‘Oh my God — that was a talented young man to put those words together.’ He had a beautiful voice. I love his voice,” she continued.

Wallace launched the Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation following her son's death, an organization that provides educational resources for children. In 2003, she honored mothers of other musicians who died untimely deaths — Aaliyah, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, Tupac Shakur, Jam Master Jay, Big Pun, Big L and Freaky Tah — at “B.I.G. Night Out,” a benefit for the foundation.

“It is our way of saying, ‘Keep your head up,”’ Wallace told AP at the time. “It’s the foundation’s way just to let these parents know that we love them.”

She also took legal action on behalf of her son. In 2004, she dropped a wrongful-death lawsuit against a former suspect in the rap star’s slaying — Amir Muhammad, aka Harry Billups. The 2002 lawsuit also named the city of Los Angeles and Muhammad’s former college roommate, David A. Mack, a Los Angeles policeman. It accused Mack of hiring Muhammad to shoot the hip-hop artist and police of failing to investigate properly after a fellow officer came under suspicion.

In 2021, Wallace worked as an executive producer on the Netflix documentary “Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell," and told AP about her role in the public eye.

“They never knew me. The public never knew me. I was thrust into this environment, I should say, after he passed away, because I’m a very private person. Extremely private," she said. "What he was doing out there, maybe I should have known. But honestly, I didn’t. And to this day, there are people who are saying, ‘Oh, she knew.’ (whispers) But I never knew.”

Notorious B.I.G.'s 1994 debut album for Bad Boy Records, “Ready to Die,” has sold over six million units as of 2018, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, and included the hits “Big Poppa” and “Juicy.”

His sophomore album, “Life After Death,” released two weeks after his death, sold more than 11 million units. It launched multiple hits, including the timeless No. 1 hits “Mo Money Mo Problems” and “Hypnotize.” In 1997, Wallace accepted the MTV Video Music Award for best rap video for “Hypnotize” on behalf of her son. ___

Associated Press journalist Gary Gerard Hamilton contributed to this report.