Delaware Court Rules Against Faith Evans in Fight Over Notorious B.I.G. Estate
A Delaware Chancery Court judge has ruled that Faith Evans, the widow of Notorious B.I.G., had no right to withhold payments from a trust established by the late rapper's mother, handing a decisive court victory to Biggie's former manager Wayne Barrow in the battle over the estate's music assets.
Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick issued her opinion in the case Barrow v. Evans on 7 August 2025, finding that Evans must give Barrow access to Voletta Wallace's 25 percent share of profits from the partnership with Primary Wave, the music publishing and management company that works alongside Notorious B.I.G. LLC — the entity that controls the rapper's catalog and likeness. Barrow serves as sole trustee of the Voletta Wallace Revocable Trust and executor of her estate. He initially sued Evans in July 2025. His legal team is led by Jay W. Freiberg, with co-counsel Yelena Rapoport. Rolling Stone
The roots of the dispute trace back to the final weeks of Voletta Wallace's life. Wallace, mother of Christopher Wallace — the man the world knew as Notorious B.I.G. — died in February 2025 at age 78. Weeks before her death, she amended her trust to remove her grandson, Christopher Jordan "CJ" Wallace, as a co-trustee. CJ Wallace is the son of Evans and Notorious B.I.G. In her ruling, Chancellor McCormick wrote that Evans appeared angered by that amendment, and the judge suggested this grievance motivated her decision to withhold the payments owed to the trust. Rolling Stone
Evans and Voletta Wallace had co-owned Notorious B.I.G. LLC, each holding a stake in the company that manages Biggie's music catalog and likeness rights in partnership with Primary Wave. With Wallace's death, control of her portion passed to the trust now run by Barrow. The court's decision means Evans, who controls the other half of the company, must release the funds she had been holding back from Wallace's 25 percent cut. Bloomberg Law
The legal fight is not over. CJ Wallace filed a separate lawsuit in Pennsylvania on 20 February 2026 challenging Barrow's authority as both trustee and executor. That suit alleges Barrow improperly influenced Voletta Wallace to place him in those roles shortly before her death, and it remains pending. Rolling Stone
For a case about royalty distributions and trust amendments, McCormick's opinion carried an unusual footnote. The chancellor quoted Biggie's 1997 track "Ten Crack Commandments," from the posthumously released album Life After Death, in her written ruling. Rolling Stone
The Notorious B.I.G., born Christopher Wallace, was killed in a still-unsolved shooting in Los Angeles in March 1997 at age 24. Nearly three decades later, the business of his catalog — the recordings, the publishing and the rights to his name and image — continues to generate the kind of courtroom disputes that his music once chronicled from a different angle entirely.
