Voletta Wallace, mother of Notorious B.I.G., has died
Toriann Ellis / Our Today
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Voletta Wallace, the mother of the late Notorious B.I.G., died Friday morning.
Wallace passed away at 78 at her home in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, the Monroe County Coroner, Thomas Yanac, according to the New York Post.
Wallace was a legend in her own right in the hip-hop community, raising B.I.G. (real name Christopher Wallace) as a single mother in Brooklyn after his father walked out on the family in 1974.
She was a Jamaican immigrant and worked as a schoolteacher.
B.I.G., one of rap’s greatest performers, was murdered on March 9, 1997, at age 24, after leaving a Soul Train Awards after-party. He was shot dead in a drive-by while sitting in a green Chevy Suburban, which was parked on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.
He was survived by his wife, the musician and actress Faith Evans, and his two children, Christopher Jordan Wallace and T’yanna Dream Wallace.
Six months earlier, B.I.G.’s rival Tupac Shakur had been killed, adding fuel to the already volatile East Coast-West Coast rap beef.
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