Estate Of The Notorious B.I.G. Finalizes Partnership With Primary Wave

The deal was brokered by Voletta Wallace shortly before she died in February.

Primary Wave has acquired half of the rights to The Notorious B.I.G.s catalog as well as his name, image, likeness, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Shortly before Biggie’s mother, Voletta Wallace, died, the deal she was working on to partner with the music company was completed. Primary Wave has reportedly taken a 50% interest in the catalog and works of the Notorious B.I.G., which is estimated to be worth more than $200 million.

Wallace, along with Bystorm Entertainment’s Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts, took the reins of the business of Biggie and turned what was once valued at $10 million when he was killed in 1997 to a staggering reported $160 million nearly 30 years after his death.

When the rap legend died, he had a standard deal of owning 50% of his publishing. Voletta Wallace took the business and helped grow it and convinced Sean “Diddy” Combs to increase the share to 85% in the early 2000s. She was able to gain 100% in 2020.

“She trusted no one,” Barrow said of Wallace. “With everything she went through, she wasn’t going to allow her or her grandkids to be in a position where what Biggie’s legacy wasn’t beneficial to them.”

Faith Evans, who was married to the “Hypnotize” lyricist when he died, said that this partnership will honor her late husband’s legacy by “creating new opportunities that highlight the timelessness of his work.”

“Securing control of my son’s publishing and masters was a hard-fought journey, one that was not easy to accomplish,” Voletta Wallace said before she died in hospice care at her home on Feb. 21. She was 72.

On March 9, 1997, Biggie was leaving a Soul Train Awards afterparty when he was shot and killed by an assailant in a black Chevy Impala when his car was parked a red light in Los Angeles. He was 24 years old.