Voletta Wallace, Mother Of The Notorious B.I.G., Dead At 72

Voletta Wallace, mother of the late Notorious B.I.G. has reportedly passed away.

According to TMZ, Wallace died on Friday morning (Feb. 21) in Stroudsburg, Penn., per Monroe County Coroner Thomas Yanac. At 72 years old, she was allegedly in hospice care and passed away due to natural causes.

Born in Jamaica, Wallace moved to New York, where she raised the legendary rapper in the Brooklyn borough. She worked as an educator, teaching preschool, according to Heavy.

She launched The Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation in 1997 to serve as a vehicle for giving back to the community, according to the official website. The nonprofit used the acronym B.I.G. to stand for “Books Instead of Guns” to encourage and empower educational success.

In 2005, she released the memoir, Biggie: Voletta Wallace Remembers Her Son, Christopher Wallace, aka Notorious B.I.G. In the book, she detailed their lives and the permanent changes caused by the violent murder of her son.

“He has touched so many people and so many people loved him and, you know, still do. That cannot take my pain away. What I am feeling inside is like a 100-pound lead weighing down in my chest. It’s very cold and it’s very heavy and I am so dying to get rid of it. But it’s not something you can get rid of, because that was my son. He was my baby. I am a mother and I will always be a mother,” she detailed of the work to NPR at the time.

Continuing Biggie’s legacy through the foundation, Wallace also ran his estate and served as a producer on the biopic film Notorious.

VIBE sends our condolences to the family, friends, and community of Voletta Wallace. This is a developing story.