Biggie's Manager Wins Estate Court Ruling Over Faith Evans in Catalog Dispute
A Delaware judge ruled on Friday, 7 August that Voletta Wallace, the late mother of The Notorious B.I.G., legally named Wayne Barrow as successor to her 50% stake in the rapper's intellectual property assets before her death in February 2025.
Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick sided with Barrow, Biggie's former manager, finding that the legal position taken by Faith Evans — who controls the other half of the estate — "fails at many levels." Barrow is now entitled to a 50% membership interest in Notorious B.I.G. LLC and 25% distribution rights from the intellectual property portfolio, according to the ruling reported by Billboard.
The dispute centres on money from a catalog deal with Primary Wave Music, a company that buys song rights and other music assets. Primary Wave acquired a 50% stake in Biggie's catalog and rights — a deal the Wall Street Journal valued at $100 million. Under Voletta Wallace's will, Barrow is to distribute her share of the Primary Wave proceeds to the Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation, and the remaining proceeds are to be split evenly among Biggie's two children, CJ and Ty'anna Wallace, and Faith Evans.
Evans must now give Barrow access to Voletta Wallace's 25% cut of profits from the Primary Wave deal. Barrow sued Evans in July 2024 — roughly three months after Primary Wave closed its acquisition — alleging that she had "wrongfully withheld" Voletta Wallace's portion of the catalog sale profits and refused to recognise his ownership stake, as Billboard reported.
Evans countersued, arguing that the LLC's bylaws did not permit Voletta Wallace to transfer ownership to Barrow without her consent. The court rejected that argument outright.
Barrow's attorney, Jay Freiberg, told Billboard on Monday, 10 August that the decision amounts to "a complete vindication" in the lawsuit against Evans.
The legal fight is not the only one still live. Biggie's son, CJ, has a pending lawsuit in Pennsylvania alleging that Barrow manipulated Voletta Wallace into giving him complete control of her estate before she death. Voletta Wallace's will originally named CJ and Barrow as joint executors but was amended a few months before her death — she was 78 — to make Barrow the sole administrator, as reported by Bloomberg Law.
For Biggie's estate, the ruling settles one thread of a tangled inheritance. The catalog money — the royalties, licensing rights and brand value that Primary Wave paid nine figures to acquire — now flows through the structure Voletta Wallace set in her final months. Whether that structure holds up under CJ's challenge in Pennsylvania is a separate question the Delaware court did not address.
