No more drama.
Faith Evans and Lil’ Kim, along with Biggie Smalls’ children and Sean “Diddy” Combs’ son, Christian, came together on Wednesday for the funeral of the late rapper’s mother, Voletta Wallace, who passed away last month at the age of 78.
Jay-Z’s mother, Gloria Carter, Bad Boy artist Mase, and RCA Records president Mark Pitts, who co-managed Biggie – aka The Notorious B.I.G. – along with Evans as they came up in the music industry, were also in attendance.
Evans, 51, was married to Biggie when he was slain in a drive-by shooting on Mar. 9, 1997, at the age of 24. To date, no arrests have been made in the murder, which was widely speculated as a retaliation for the killing of fellow rapper Tupac Shukar, as the pair were embroiled in an infamous East Coast-West Coast rap rivalry.
The R&B singer was rumored to have a beef with Lil’ Kim, B.I.G.’s mentee, who Evans said had an affair with her husband.
In recent years, both Evans and Kim, 50, have said no animosity remains between them. “My issues with Kim really went out the window when B.I.G. passed, to be quite honest,” Evans remarked in 2017. She and Kim even collaborated together on Evans’ 2017 song, “Lovin’ You For Life.”
Biggie and Evans’ son, Christopher Jordan “C.J.” Wallace, arrived a few minutes before his mother, who wore a cream-colored Gucci tuxedo.
T’yanna Dream Wallace, the daughter of Biggie and his high school love, Jan Jackson, made her arrival just before the service was scheduled to start.
Diddy’s son, Christian (aka “King”), was seemingly present to represent his father, who is currently jailed at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where he awaits trial on racketeering and sex trafficking charges. Combs has pleaded not guilty on all counts.
The Bad Boy Entertainment founder is widely credited with discovering Biggie and propelling him to fame in the early 1990s.
Wallace’s service was held at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on New York City’s Upper East Side, the same funeral home where the service for Biggie – born Christopher George Latore Wallace – took place on Mar. 18, 1997, nine days after his death.
Frank E. Campbell’s has long been a favored venue for the funerals of New York celebrities, such as John Lennon, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, former Mayor Ed Koch, Aaliyah, Heath Ledger, Biggie Smalls, Joan Rivers and Ivana Trump.
Scheduled for 10:30 am, people began showing up around 9:30 am, according to Rolling Stone. Before entering the chapel, mourners had to check in with security guards to confirm they were on the approved guest list, the outlet added.
Wallace’s casket was reportedly encircled with pink and white flowers, and family photos of the late preschool teacher-turned-steward of her son’s memory played on a screen.
Wallace died on Feb. 21 of natural causes in hospice care at her home in Stroudsburg, Penn., Monroe County Coroner, Thomas Yanac, previously confirmed to The Post.
A public viewing was held on Tuesday. “This will be an opportunity for all of us, together, to acknowledge and pay tribute to the matriarch who built her son’s memory into the legacy that stands today, allowing his iconic music and his legendary style to touch and inspire generations upon generations of music, hip hop and popular culture fans across the globe,” the family said in a statement on Instagram.
A photo of Wallace’s funeral program was shared on T’yanna’s Instagram story shortly before the service was set to begin.
“We will remember her as a loving mother, a fearless fighter, a loving grandmother, great-grandmother, and a child of god,” an inscription on the program read.
A legend in her own right in the hip-hop community, Wallace was a Jamaican immigrant and single mom who raised Smalls on her own in Brooklyn after his father walked out on the family in 1974.
In 2017, Wallace spoke to The Post about her son’s death and discussed how the rapper’s killer hadn’t been caught.
“It still hurts that nothing has been done,” she said at the time.
Wallace also played a key role in keeping her son’s legacy alive in the years following his death, managing and growing his estate to an estimated $160 million.
She even served as a producer on the 2009 Biggie biopic, “Notorious.” Angela Bassett played her in the film.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
