Voletta Wallace, mother of late Brooklyn rapper, Christopher Wallace popularly known as Notorious B.I.G, has passed away.
Gatekeepers News reports that she passed away at the age of 78 on Friday while in hospice care at her residence in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.
The Jamaican immigrant gained widespread recognition after the death of her 24-year-old son who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997.
Following Notorious B.I.G’s tragic death, Wallace took charge of his career posthumously. She founded ‘The Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation’, which focused on providing educational opportunities for children through initiatives like B.I.G. (Books Instead of Guns)
Wallace and Faith Evans, her son’s wife, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles in 2002. They accused the police of being involved in his murder and a subsequent cover-up.
Although the case ended in a mistrial in 2005, a judge ruled that the LAPD had intentionally withheld evidence and ordered the city to pay the estate’s legal fees.
A later version of the lawsuit, filed in 2007, sought $500 million in damages but was dismissed in 2010 to avoid interfering with a renewed criminal investigation.
