Wayne Barrow, the former manager of late rapper The Notorious B.I.G., was victorious in a legal battle with Faith Evans. The pair clashed over the catalog payments, with Wayne Barrow now gaining the stake that was once solely for B.I.G.’s mother, the late Voletta Wallace.
Rolling Stone reports that Wayne Barrow, 61, has won the first of two lawsuits over the proceeds from the sale of a stake in B.I.G.’s music catalog and intellectual property.
A Delaware Court of Chancery judge ruled in favor of Barrow, stating that Faith Evans, 53, did not have rights to withhold payments to a trust that Ms. Wallace, who passed away in early 2025, established. Barrow is the sole trustee of the trust and was named executor of Ms. Wallace’s estate.
Evans denied the trust’s request for payment after Ms. Wallace’s passing. Evans, along with Ms. Wallace, owned Notorious B.I.G. LLC, which controlled the rapper’s music catalog and images before entering into a joint venture deal with Primary Wave in March 2025, a month after Ms. Wallace’s death.
Ms. Wallace and Evans, under their company holdings, transferred half of their rights to B.I.G.’s children, Ty’anna Wallace and Christopher Jordan “CJ” Wallace. That arrangement reportedly left all parties with 25 percent of the company’s payouts.
With the Chancery Court ruling, Barrow will now get Ms. Wallace’s 25 percent share as the trustee of her trust from the aforementioned Primary Wave deal. Beyond that, court documents show that any interest the trust earned will be given to the Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation, where Barrow is a board member.
According to the ruling that the outlet observed, Evans was apparently upset at Ms. Wallace over her decision to remove her grandson, CJ Wallace, as a co-trustee. The reasons for that change were not explained.
CJ Wallace has launched a lawsuit of his own in nearby Pennsylvania that challenges Barrow’s role as the trustee and executor of his grandmother’s estate and holdings. The case is still pending.
—
Photo: Getty
