Voletta Wallace, the mom of the Brooklyn rapper the Infamous B.I.G., whose stewardship of her son’s profession, and of his legacy after he was killed in 1997, helped cement him as a hip-hop legend, died on Friday. She was 78.
Her demise, in hospice care at her residence in Stroudsburg, Pa., was confirmed by the Monroe County coroner, Thomas Yanac. No trigger was specified.
A middle-class immigrant and single mom from Jamaica, Ms. Wallace was compelled into the hip-hop highlight after the Infamous B.I.G., born Christopher Wallace and also called Biggie Smalls, was killed at 24 in a Los Angeles drive-by taking pictures.
His demise got here simply six months after the Las Vegas slaying of the rapper Tupac Shakur, a onetime pal turned bitter rival. The killings abruptly ended a formative and fruitful second in mainstream gangster rap amid a tangled East Coast-West Coast beef that went far past music.
For many years, each circumstances remained unsolved, fueling an ecosystem of true-crime books, documentaries, articles and extra which have tried to clarify the doable hyperlinks between the 2 killings, together with the involvement of nationwide gangs and crooked cops. (In 2023, prosecutors in Las Vegas charged Duane Keith Davis, a former gang chief often known as Keffe D, with homicide within the Shakur case; he’s set to face trial this yr.)
Ms. Wallace, a preschool trainer, took on the mantle of her son’s profession virtually instantly. Biggie’s second album, “Life After Loss of life,” got here out two weeks after he died; six months later, Ms. Wallace accepted the MTV Video Music Award for greatest rap video (“Hypnotize”), telling the New York crowd, “I do know if my son was right here tonight, the very first thing he would’ve executed is say large as much as Brooklyn.”
Two years later, she appeared alongside Afeni Shakur, Tupac’s mom, on the similar awards present, urging unity and the preservation of their sons’ legacies.
Ms. Wallace would go on to work with different moms of musicians who died younger, by her Christopher Wallace Memorial Basis and its B.I.G. (Books As a substitute of Weapons) Night time Out.
“All I wish to do is put a guide into a toddler’s hand. As a result of books don’t kill,” Ms. Wallace mentioned in 2003. “Books don’t homicide. However weapons do.”
In 2002, Ms. Wallace and her son’s widow, the singer Religion Evans, filed a wrongful-death go well with in opposition to the town of Los Angeles, accusing the Los Angeles Police Division of protecting up police involvement within the killing. A 2005 trial led to a mistrial, with a decide ruling that the police had deliberately withheld proof and ordering the town to pay the property’s authorized charges.
An amended model of the go well with filed by Biggie’s property in 2007 estimated monetary losses at $500 million. The case was dismissed in 2010 to keep away from interfering with what the property known as a “reinvigorated” felony investigation. “The household solely needed justice to be executed,” a lawyer for the property mentioned on the time.
Regardless of the shortage of closure within the case, Ms. Wallace continued to unfold the Infamous B.I.G.’s story throughout standard tradition.
She was credited as a producer — and performed by Angela Bassett as “a saint with a strong tongue,” as one overview put it — within the 2009 biopic “Infamous,” even teaching the actor, Jamal Woolard, who performed her son.
“I felt like I generally intimidated him through the movie,” Ms. Wallace mentioned. “I felt dangerous for that, however as a producer my job is to be there.”
In a 2021 documentary, “Biggie: I Obtained a Story to Inform,” Ms. Wallace recalled her musical affect on her once-shy son from their days within the Bedford-Stuyvesant part of Brooklyn, the place he was uncovered to a mixture of reggae, jazz and — her private favourite — nation music.
“Ever since I used to be a little bit woman, I preferred tales,” Ms. Wallace mentioned. “When he was a little bit boy and was rising up, I at all times had the radio on and tuned in to the nation music station. I really like my Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings. He listened to all of it with me as a result of he had no different alternative.”
Ms. Wallace was born in a small city within the Trelawny Parish area of japanese Jamaica. Her date of delivery is broadly reported as Feb. 3, 1953, however the coroner’s report says her age was 78. Her father was a farmer and butcher. Her mom raised her and her eight siblings.
As a younger lady, Ms. Wallace traveled to the USA to go to a pal after which stayed. After a few yr, she started a relationship with a welder named George Latore, the Infamous B.I.G.’s father. She advised XXL journal that she determined after her son’s delivery to dedicate herself to him, quite than produce other youngsters or marry.
Her survivors embody Infamous B.I.G.’s two youngsters, Christopher Jordan and T’yanna Wallace.
For years, Ms. Wallace was a dependable presence alongside the music govt Sean Combs, often known as Puff Daddy or Diddy, who helped uncover Biggie and who additionally shepherded his legacy after his demise. However she was unequivocal final yr, as Mr. Combs was accused of widespread sexual abuse and indicted on federal racketeering and intercourse trafficking prices.
“I hope that I see Sean in the future, and the one factor I wish to do is slap the daylights out of him. And you’ll quote me on that,” Ms. Wallace advised Rolling Stone. “As a result of I preferred him. I didn’t wish to consider all of the terrible issues, however I’m so ashamed and embarrassed.”
Alex Traub contributed reporting.
