The Notorious B.I.G.’s estate sells rights to late rapper’s music

nme.com:

The Notorious B.I.G. has sold a stake in the late rapper’s music publishing and recordings and certain name, image, and likeness rights to Primary Wave Music.While terms of the deal were not disclosed, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday (March 20) that Biggie Smalls’ mother, Voletta Wallace, had reached the deal with Primary Wave shortly before her death earlier this year, with sources saying she was involved in nearly every aspect of the negotiations.Wallace, who passed away in February, had been instrumental in carrying on her son’s legacy and overseeing his estate, following his murder at the age of 24 on March 9, 1997.

She established the Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation and was a producer on the 2009 biopic Notorious, directed by George Tillman Jr.

and starring Jamal Woolard, and was portrayed by Angela Bassett in the film.Per the WSJ, Primary Wave is taking a 50 per cent interest in the estate, which was valued at $200million.

It was also reported that the Brooklyn rapper had a standard publishing deal with Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy company, which gave him a 50 per cent interest in his songwriting catalogue at the time of his death.A post shared by Primary Wave (@primarywave)As the estate was doing most of the heavy lifting when it came to making deals and monetising the music, Wallace later convinced Combs to raise the estate’s stake to 85 per cent in the early aughts and acquired the remaining 15 per cent in 2020.“The estate and Primary Wave will collaborate on all business moving forward in an effort to continue the incredible and innovative work done thus far with one goal in mind, to keep the legacy of the Notorious B.I.G.