Voletta Wallace, the dedicated mother of the late rapper the Notorious BIG, died on Friday morning aged 78.
The Monroe county coroner, Thomas Yanac, confirmed her death on Friday to the Associated Press, saying she died at her home in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, after a stint in hospice care. She died of natural causes.
Born in Jamaica, Wallace moved to New York City in the 1960s. She gave birth to her son, Christopher “Biggie” Wallace, in 1972. Wallace played a pivotal role in carrying the torch for her late son, who was killed in 1997. A representative for the estate of the Notorious BIG did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Notorious BIG, one of rap’s greatest performers, was shot to death at age 24 in Los Angeles in 1997. The case remains unsolved. 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.