Timeline of Grief and Legacy: How Biggie Smalls' Family and Widow Honor His Name

A detailed look at Timeline of Grief and Legacy: How Biggie Smalls' Family and Widow Honor His Name, including critical updates.

The battle for accountability extended far beyond recording studios. In 2002, Voletta Wallace, Evans, and Biggie’s children filed a federal wrongful-death lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department. The suit claimed rogue, corrupted police officers played direct roles in facilitating the murder alongside Death Row Records associates. After mistrials, concealed police documents, and millions spent on legal fees, the family dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice in 2010 to avoid draining resources while keeping future claims viable.

Financial equity represented another protracted challenge. For years, Bad Boy Records controlled the master and publishing rights to Biggie’s foundational records. When Sean Combs transferred Bad Boy publishing rights back to original artists and their surviving heirs in late 2023, it marked a long-overdue financial correction. The move guaranteed that Wallace’s children, C.J. Wallace and Biggie’s firstborn daughter, T’yanna Wallace, would directly benefit from their father’s catalog without corporate intermediaries extracting disproportionate profits.