No extra drama.
Religion Evans and Lil’ Kim, together with Biggie Smalls’ youngsters and Sean “Diddy” Combs’ son Christian, got here collectively on Wednesday for the funeral of the late rapper’s mom, Voletta Wallace, who handed away final month on the age of 78.
Jay-Z’s mom, Gloria Carter, Unhealthy Boy Data artist Mase and RCA Data president Mark Pitts, who co-managed Biggie — aka the Infamous B.I.G. — together with Evans as they got here up within the music trade, had been additionally in attendance.
Evans, 51, was married to Biggie when he was slain in a drive-by capturing on March 9, 1997, on the age of 24. To this point, no arrests have been made within the homicide, which was broadly speculated as a retaliation for the killing of fellow rapper Tupac Shakur, because the pair had been embroiled in an notorious 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 stated had an affair along with her husband.
In recent times, each Evans and Kim, 50, have stated no animosity stays 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 collectively on Evans’ 2017 tune, “Lovin’ You for Life.”
Biggie and Evans’ son, Christopher Jordan “C.J.” Wallace, arrived a couple of minutes earlier than his mom, who wore a cream-colored Gucci tuxedo.
T’yanna Wallace, the daughter of Biggie and his highschool love, Jan Jackson, made her arrival simply earlier than the service was scheduled to begin.
Combs’ son Christian (aka “King”) was seemingly current to characterize his father, who’s at the moment jailed at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Heart, the place he awaits trial on racketeering and intercourse trafficking prices. Combs has pleaded not responsible on all counts.
The Unhealthy Boy Leisure founder is broadly credited with discovering Biggie and propelling him to fame within the early Nineteen Nineties.
Wallace’s service was held on the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on New York Metropolis’s Higher East Aspect, the identical funeral dwelling the place the service for Biggie — born Christopher George Latore Wallace — befell on March 18, 1997, 9 days after his loss of life.
Frank E. Campbell’s has lengthy been a well-liked venue for the funerals of New York celebrities, corresponding to John Lennon, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, former Mayor Ed Koch, Aaliyah, Heath Ledger, Joan Rivers and Ivana Trump.
Scheduled for 10:30 a.m., folks started exhibiting up round 9:30, in response to Rolling Stone. Earlier than getting into the chapel, mourners needed to verify in with safety guards to verify they had been on the accredited visitor record, the outlet added.
Wallace’s casket was reportedly encircled with pink and white flowers, whereas household photographs of the late preschool trainer turned steward of her son’s reminiscence performed on a display screen.
Wallace died on Feb. 21 of pure causes in hospice care at her dwelling in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, Monroe County Coroner Thomas Yanac beforehand confirmed to The Submit.
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 household stated in a press release on Instagram.
A photograph of Wallace’s funeral program was shared on T’yanna’s Instagram story shortly earlier than the service was set to start.
“We will remember her as a loving mother, a fearless fighter, a loving grandmother, great-grandmother, and a child of god,” an inscription on this system learn.
A legend in her personal proper within the hip-hop neighborhood, Wallace was a Jamaican immigrant and a single mother, who raised Smalls on her personal in Brooklyn after his father walked out on the household in 1974.
In 2017, Wallace spoke to The Submit about her son’s loss of life and mentioned how the rapper’s killer hadn’t been caught.
“It still hurts that nothing has been done,” she stated on the time.
Wallace additionally performed a key function in retaining her son’s legacy alive within the years following his loss of life, managing and rising his property to an estimated $160 million.
She even served as a producer on the 2009 Biggie biopic, “Notorious.” Angela Bassett performed her within the movie.
