Photo Credit: View of Brooklyn from the Brooklyn Bridge by Jose Lebron
The sale of Biggie’s catalog soon after the death of his mother raises red flags for a former associate, who says the rapper’s family won’t benefit.
A former Biggie Smalls associate — and former bodyguard of Diddy — Gene Deal, claims the sale of the late rapper’s catalog will not benefit his family. Deal has accused representatives of Biggie’s estate of exploiting the King of New York’s family with the sale of his publishing and marketing rights after the recent death of his mother, Voletta Wallace.
“Knowing this lady was sick, and she was in a hospice,” said Deal in an interview with The Art of Dialogue. “These guys, Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts, went on and started working out deals to allegedly sell Big’s publishing, his marketing, all his rights to everything.”
“They are working out a deal for them,” he added. “It ain’t for Miss Wallace, it ain’t for Big’s kids. Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts, those are the dudes that Puff [Diddy] put in play. I can’t believe this.”
“These are the dudes that when Big died, they took over the marketing and the publishing and everything,” Deal explained. “They were Puff’s boys. I guess it paid off, ‘cause now they looking to get $100 million to $150 million on this whole thing. […] They about to get paid, and they were placed there.”
The Notorious B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace, had two children: daughter T’yanna (1993) and son Christopher Jr. (1996). Christopher Jr. was just six months old when their father was murdered in 1997. It’s yet unclear what the terms of the deal are and how much — if anything — Biggie’s children stand to gain from the sale to publisher Primary Wave once finalized.
Deal, a former Bad Boy security guard who worked for Sean “Diddy” Combs, also claimed that Voletta Wallace “never trusted” Diddy and actively avoided him at events. According to Deal, Wallace “knew [Combs] might have had something to do with her son’s death.” The murder of the Notorious B.I.G. remains unsolved after nearly 30 years.
Content shared from www.digitalmusicnews.com.