Voletta Wallace, mother of The Notorious B.I.G., dies aged 78

Voletta Wallace, the mother of The Notorious B.I.G., has died at the age of 78.

The news was reported on Friday (February 21) by TMZ, after Monroe County Coroner Thomas Yanac announced that she had passed away from natural causes in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, where she had been receiving hospice care.

Wallace had been instrumental in carrying on her son’s legacy and overseeing his estate, following his murder at the age of 24 on March 9, 1997. She established the Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation and was a producer on the 2009 biopic Notorious, directed by George Tillman Jr. and starring Jamal Woolard. She was portrayed by Angela Bassett in the film.

Born on February 3, 1953 and raised in Jamaica, Wallace moved to Brooklyn and worked as a preschool teacher. Biggie Smalls, born Christopher George Latore Wallace, was her only child, born on May 21, 1972. His father Selwyn George Latore left the family just before Christohper turned three years old, with Voletta left to raise him as a single mother.

She later published her memoir Biggie in 2005, and in 2021 she worked as an executive producer on the Netflix documentary Biggie: I Got A Story To Tell. When promoting that film, she told the Associated Press: “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.”

“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.”

She spoke of her joy at Biggie’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2020. “Brooklyn we did it!!! This is so long overdue,” she wrote. “Thank you to everyone that helped make this happen for Christopher. Love you all.”

Wallace also was outspoken about the allegations against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in 2024, telling Rolling Stone: “I’m sick to my stomach. I’m praying for his mother. I don’t want to believe the things that I’ve heard, but I’ve seen [the video]. I pray that he apologises to her.”

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