A solemn Faith Evans, Lil Kim, Mase, and the Notorious B.I.G.‘s children were among the family members and loved ones who paid their respects to Voletta Wallace, the mother of the late iconic Brooklyn rapper, following her death at the age of 78 last month.
The funeral was held Wednesday morning at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on the Upper East Side in New York City — the same place where Christopher Wallace’s service was held on March 18, 1997, just nine days after he was gunned down aged 24 in Los Angeles.
Voletta’s only child was Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls. The preschool teacher gave birth to the rapper in 1972. In the wake of her son’s still-unsolved murder, Voletta became a steward for his legacy. She helped manage the Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation, growing the fund to an estimated $160 million and helping empower local communities through art and educational resources. Voletta died of natural causes in hospice care at her home in Stroudsburg, PA, on February 21, a coroner for Monroe County confirmed to Rolling Stone.
Slated to begin at 10:30 a.m., funeral attendees in all black began to trickle into the venue at 9:30 a.m., clearing their names with suited security guards, who had printed off a list of approved guests. Inside, her casket was surrounded by a bed of pink and white flowers, as family photos played on the screen.
Christopher Jordan “C.J.” Wallace, Biggie’s son with R&B singer Evans, was among the first family members to arrive. A few minutes later, Evans emerged from an SUV, wearing a cream Gucci tuxedo blazer set. T’yanna Dream Wallace, Biggie’s daughter with his high school sweetheart Jan Jackson, arrived shortly before the service was set to begin.
Among the other guests were Lil’ Kim, Jay-Z’s mother Gloria Carter, Bad Boy artist Mase, and RCA Records president Mark Pitts, who co-managed Wallace and Evans in the early days of their careers.
Sean “Diddy” Combs’ son Christian was one of the last people to arrive, paying his respects in his father’s absence. The Bad Boy Entertainment founder is currently detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after his September arrest on racketeering and sex trafficking charges. (Combs pleaded not guilty.) The 55-year-old is credited with discovering Wallace in the early 1990s, helping turn the Brooklyn rapper into a superstar.
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The evening before the funeral, a smattering of fans somberly lined up to pay their respects to Voletta during a viewing that was open to the public. “This will be an opportunity for all of us, together, to acknowledge and pay tribute to the matriarch who built her son’s memory into the legacy that stands today, allowing his iconic music and his legendary style to touch and inspire generations upon generations of music, hip hop and popular culture fans across the globe,” the family said in a statement.
Standing outside the funeral home on Tuesday afternoon, a woman who only identified herself as a friend of the family remarked how surreal it was to be back at the same location nearly 30 years after Biggie’s death, affectionately calling “Ms. Wallace” the mother of hip-hop.
It’s a sentiment expressed by a few people who spoke with Rolling Stone. Brooklyn-born artist Young Jefe wiped tears from his eyes after emerging from the funeral home. “She was like a mother figure,” he says. “She did everything in her power to keep her son’s legacy going.”
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“I’m going to miss her,” he adds, his voice cracking. “She was an incredible woman.”
Hip-hop artist D-Boogz, who identified himself as a cousin to Biggie’s daughter, stood outside the funeral home, greeting people who took time out of their day to pay their respects. Wearing a Voletta T-shirt, he says he admired how Voletta ensured that Biggie’s legacy was not forgotten. “She kept that alive; she was always part of anything that had something to do with Biggie,” he says. “That’s the OG’s mother. She had a big heart.”
