Biggie’s Manager Wins Battle Against Widow Faith Evans, Gains Partial Control Over Rapper’s Catalog
A Delaware Chancery Court judge has ruled in favour of Wayne Barrow, one of the Notorious B.I.G.'s former managers, in his legal dispute with the rapper's widow, Faith Evans, over control of his music catalogue and estate income. The ruling, the first of two lawsuits concerning Biggie's intellectual property, found that Evans had wrongly withheld payments owed to a trust set up by the rapper's late mother, Voletta Wallace, marking a significant win for Barrow as he takes on stewardship of the rapper's legacy.
Barrow is sole trustee of the trust and executor of Voletta Wallace's estate following her death in February 2025, aged 78. Evans and Voletta had jointly owned Notorious B.I.G. LLC, which controls the rapper's catalogue and likeness through a partnership with Primary Wave, but Evans refused to release Voletta's 25% share of profits after Voletta amended the trust shortly before her death to remove Evans and Biggie's son, CJ Wallace, as co-trustee. Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick ruled on 7 August that Evans must grant Barrow access to those funds. A separate, still-pending lawsuit filed by CJ Wallace in Pennsylvania challenges Barrow's authority as trustee and executor, alleging he improperly influenced Voletta before her death; Barrow's lawyer called the Delaware ruling a "total victory".
- Judge sides with Biggie's ex-manager Wayne Barrow over widow Faith Evans
- Evans must release Voletta Wallace's 25% catalogue profit share
- Separate Pennsylvania lawsuit from son CJ Wallace still pending
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Wayne Barrow, a former manager of the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. (real name Christopher Wallace, who died in 1997), has been locked in a legal dispute with the rapper's widow, Faith Evans, over who controls his music catalogue and the income it generates. Barrow became sole trustee of a trust set up by Biggie's mother, Voletta Wallace, and executor of her estate after she died in February 2025, aged 78. Evans and Voletta had jointly owned the company that holds the rights to Biggie's music and image, working with the music company Primary Wave.
The dispute centres on money: Voletta's share of profits from that company, which Barrow says Evans wrongly withheld after Voletta changed her trust shortly before she died to remove both Evans and Biggie's son, CJ Wallace, as co-trustees. This case was heard in a Delaware court, one of two ongoing legal battles over control of Biggie's legacy. The other, filed separately by CJ Wallace in Pennsylvania, disputes Barrow's authority altogether, alleging he unduly influenced Voletta before her death.
The outcome matters because it determines who manages one of hip-hop's most valuable and enduring catalogues, and how income from it is distributed among the people closest to Biggie, nearly three decades after his death.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Supporters of the ruling would argue that Voletta Wallace, as a competent adult, had every right to amend her own trust as she judged best, and that courts must uphold clearly documented wishes rather than let disappointed relatives override them informally. They would stress that a trustee's duty is to distribute funds according to the trust's terms, so Evans withholding Voletta's 25% share amounted to denying money that was legally owed, and the court simply enforced the document as written. They might add that allegations of undue influence are serious and deserve proper judicial scrutiny, which is exactly what is under way in the separate Pennsylvania case, rather than being used to justify unilateral non-compliance in the meantime.
The case against
Evans and those sympathetic to her position would argue that an amendment made shortly before an elderly woman's death, which conveniently removed both her son's widow and her own grandson as co-trustees, warrants real caution rather than automatic deference. They would emphasise that family members who have jointly stewarded Biggie's legacy for decades have a legitimate interest in questioning a last-minute change that hands sole control to a non-family manager, especially given the son's pending claim that Voletta was improperly influenced. From this view, withholding disputed funds until those serious questions were resolved was a protective safeguard for the estate rather than wrongful conduct, and the fact that another court is now examining the trustee's conduct suggests the concerns were far from frivolous.