Voletta Wallace, mom of The Notorious B.I.G, dies at 78

Hip-hop mogul Jay-Z was accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl along with Sean “Diddy” Combs in 2000.

The Monroe County Coroner’s Office announced her death in a press release Friday. Coroner Thomas A. Yanac said Wallace died of natural causes in hospice care at her Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, home.

The Notorious B.I.G., also known as Biggie Smalls, died in 1997 at 24 in a shooting. After her son’s death, Wallace was dedicated to keeping his memory alive through advocacy and activism.

Months prior to Biggie Smalls’ death, West Coast rapper and frequent musical foe Tupac Shakur died in a drive-by shooting in 1996; both shooting deaths remain unsolved. At the 1999 Video Music Awards, Wallace made headlines when she hugged the mom of her son’s rap rival, Afeni Shakur, on stage at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City after being introduced by actor and rapper Will Smith.

In 2020, after her son was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Wallace told Billboard how “proud” she was of her late son.

“Today, I’m feeling great,” Wallace told Billboard in 2020. “As a mother, I’m extremely proud of his accomplishments. You know, I still see such a young man at a young age, and sadly, he’s not here to witness all this. But it’s an astute honor, and as a mother, I’m just elated for that.”

“Many of (Biggie’s songs) speak truth,” she said. “It might be gritty, and maybe the language is so out there, but he was honest. There was nothing fake about what he was doing. I think for such a young man to resonate such honesty in his lyrics is awesome.”

Wallace was portrayed by Oscar-nominated actress Angela Bassett in “Notorious,” the 2009 biographical film about Biggie’s life. The film was produced by Wallace and executive produced by Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Last year, Wallace made headlines when she told Rolling Stone that she wanted to “slap the daylights” out of her son’s former friend and producer Combs, the embattled music mogul who is now facing federal sex crimes charges, before his arrest.

The month before Wallace’s comments, video footage surfaced from 2016 of Diddy kicking, hitting and dragging then-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura Fine at a Los Angeles hotel. He later apologized for the assault in a video posted to his Instagram page, talking directly to the camera.

“I’m sick to my stomach,” Wallace told Rolling Stone about Diddy’s legal troubles. “I’m praying for Cassie. I’m praying for his mother. I don’t want to believe the things that I’ve heard, but I’ve seen (the hotel video). I pray that he apologizes to her.”