Voletta Wallace, the mother of the late Notorious Big rapper who worked to raise her short and influential career in the greatness of hip-hop, has died. She was 78 years old.
“We suffer a tremendous loss today. Our mother, our matriarch, the woman who dedicated himself to raising her son, Christopher Wallace, and preserving her legacy has happened, “Wallace's family said Friday on her Facebook page.” With an immense sadness that we share this news With you, and we ask you to give our family the space and time necessary to cry this monumental loss. “
Wallace died Friday morning in Studsburg, Penn., The forensic of Monroe County, Thomas Yanac, confirmed Associated Press. She died of natural causes in hospice care at home, she said. Yanac did not immediately respond to requests for comments from the Times.
Wallace's son, who was also known as Biggie, was shot dead in 1997 after a music industry party in the District of mid -Wilshire, only two weeks before his seminal album “Life After Death”. His mother worked to safeguard the legacy of the rapper “hypnotize” and transmit his wealth to his grandchildren, the “notorious” star Christopher Jordan “CJ” Wallace and his daughter T'yanna Dream Wallace. The family also filed a series of demands that allege unfair death and conspiracy.
She and her family also sued the city of Los Angeles, claiming that the officials covered the participation of the police in the murder of the rapper. A federal judge dismissed that lawsuit in 2010 after both sides said they had reached an agreement that allowed the claim to be submitted at a later date. The family brought several other demands derived from murder, which is still unresolved.
Wallace, a Jamaican immigrant, worked as a preschool teacher and was a single mother. His son, who was 24 when he died, was killed only six months after the rival rapper Tupac Shakur was shot dead in Las Vegas. Brooklyn's master of ceremonies and the rapper of “Big Poppa”, born Christopher Wallace, was among the most successful acts launched by Music Mogul presenter Sean “Diddy” Combs. Six months after his death, his mother took the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards to accept the rap video award (“Hypnotize”) in his name.
“I know that if my son were here tonight, the first thing I would have done is: 'Big Brooklyn,” he said.
Two years later, she and Shakur's mother, Ageni Shakur, put a united front in the 1999 Vide Mtvv Vide Music Awards for “Stand United as mothers preserving her [sons’] Legados.
“The fact that we are even standing here shows the power of faith, friends, family, loved ones and fans they can do to approach everyone,” Wallace said.
The matriarch also worked with the mothers of other young dead musicians: Aaliyah, Lise Night out.
“It's our way of saying: 'Keep your head up,” Wallace told The Associated Press in 2003. “It is the shape of the foundation for these parents to know that we love them.”
When combs fell in grace last year, Wallace was among those who spoke against the music producer after a video of him attacking his ex -girlfriend Cassie Ventura appeared and put it “sick to [her] stomach.”
“I don't want to believe the things I've heard, but I've seen [the video]”Wallace told Rolling Stone last May.” I pray to apologize to her. I hope to see you are one day and all I want to do is hit him. And you can quote me on that. Because I liked it. I didn't want to believe all the Horrible things, but I am so embarrassed and ashamed. “
Biggie, who launched her debut album “Ready to die” with Bad Boy Records in 1994, was included posthumously in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020, one of his many achievements that his mother highlighted in his social media accounts that she largely dedicated to him. Last year, he scored “Hypnotize” reaching 1 billion currents in Spotify after its 1997 launch.
In a profile in early 1997 on Times, Biggie, describing his own reform, said: “What I am doing now is correct. I am taking care of my mother, my children and my classmates. It is legal, and I am only using a talent that I have to express myself and that they pay me, so it is correct to follow that fair path. “
In 2005, Wallace published a memory, “Biggie: Volletta Wallace remembers her son, Christopher Wallace, also known as Notorious Big”, to pay tribute to Biggie, describing to lose it as young as feeling as “a 100 -pound advantage that weighed in My chest. singer Faith Evans. The book drew his son's rise to stardom and how Wallace worked to maintain “his bright and early son on the straight and narrow one.” In him, he also condemned Biggie's friends who, according to her, treated her with little respect after he died, as well as her continuous search to identify her son's murderers.
In 2021, she worked as an executive producer in the Netflix documentary “Biggie: I have a story to tell.” Before that, she served as a producer in the 2009 “Notorious” biographical film, in which Angela Bassett touched her, and the son of Biggie CJ touched a younger version of him. Jamal Wooold played the major version of the rapper. He visited the set almost every day, and although he loved the final film, he said, he also angered her and the sad.
“I learned a lot … about my son, a lot that I never knew. But I still love him because he was from [my heart] And love is still here, “he told Cinemablend in 2009.” You can't change love. “
To mark Biggie's 50th birthday, she and the rapper's children, along with the collaborators Lil 'Kim and Lil' cease, gathered in the Empire State Building when he changed their colors to red and white in his honor. New York also commemorated the rapper with a special edition of Metrocard and an orchestral tribute to his music at the Lincoln Center, Variety reported.
