Notorious B.I.G. Legacy Case Ends in Loss for Widow Faith Evans.

August 7, 2026

Producer Wayne Barrow scored a legal victory Friday in his battle for control of the Notorious B.I.G.’s musical legacy, which has pitted him against the rapper’s children and widow, R&B singer Faith Evans.

A Delaware Chancery Court judge ruled for Barrow, saying a trust he controls — holding the assets of the star’s late mother, Voletta Wallace — is a member of the entity that co-owns the song catalog. Barrow, who alleged Evans refused to make payouts after improperly seizing control of the business, is also involved in litigation in Pennsylvania against the hip-hop icon’s children, who say Barrow manipulated their grandmother into naming him trustee and estate executor.

The fight between Barrow and Evans began when he sued her about three months after Primary Wave Music acquired a 50% stake in her husband’s catalog and likeness. Christopher Wallace, also known as Biggie Smalls, rocketed to fame in the mid-1990s with hits like “Juicy” and “Big Poppa” before his death in a 1997 drive-by shooting that remains unsolved. His murder—along with the killing months earlier of rival Tupac Shakur—marked a major cultural turning point.

Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick began her 16-page ruling Friday by quoting one of the rapper’s songs, “Ten Crack Commandments,” which warned to “keep your family and business completely separated.”

“After Wallace’s tragic death, however, his mother and widow did exactly the opposite,” McCormick wrote. “This litigation was perhaps the inevitable result.”

The Primary Wave deal, reported at the time to be worth $100 million, appears to have prompted Barrow’s claim that Evans cut him out of a managerial role he effectively held before the February 2025 death of Voletta Wallace, who allegedly negotiated the sale.

Evans had asked McCormick to pause the Delaware dispute pending the will challenge, which includes allegations that Barrow rifled through Wallace’s papers after her death. Evans denied any involvement in the last-minute petition filed by her son that Barrow previously called a delay tactic. She also argued the parallel case was relevant to her claim that Barrow invalidly executed a key legal document.

But McCormick sided with Barrow, agreeing that the cases raise independent issues capable of being resolved separately. The Voletta Wallace trust is a member of Notorious B.I.G. LLC regardless of whether the Pennsylvania case ends with Barrow keeping or losing his role as trustee, the judge said in a brief companion decision issued the same day.

“A dispute regarding plaintiff’s role as the trustee does not create a factual dispute over whether the trust is a member of the company,” the judge said.