The Notorious B.I.G.’s former manager Wayne Barrow wins his legal battle against Faith Evans to control Biggie’s music catalog and intellectual property rights.
According to documents obtained by XXL on Tuesday (Aug. 11), a Delaware Chancery Court judge ruled on Aug. 7 in favor of Wayne Barrow serving as executor of the late Brooklyn rapper’s estate and said Faith Evans has no legal authority to block funds meant for a trust fund set up by B.I.G.’s late mother, Voletta Wallace. Barrow was also confirmed as the person responsible for managing both the trust fund and Voletta Wallace’s estate.
The legal battle between Barrow and Evans started after March of 2025, when The Notorious B.I.G.’s estate partnered with publishing company Primary Wave in a deal that will see the company take over a 50 percent interest in Biggie’s catalog, publishing, and publicity rights. The reported $100 million deal was put in place by Biggie’s mother before she passed away in February of 2025 at the age of 78.
In July of 2025, Wayne Barrow filed a lawsuit against Faith Evans, alleging that she was ignoring their split ownership and obstructing funds for the estate and redirecting the payments toward herself and the children of the late rapper.
In Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick’s 16-page ruling, she began by quoting a lyric from B.I.G.’s classic song, “Ten Crack Commandments,” in which he warned to “keep your family and business completely separated.”
“After [Biggie’s] tragic death, however, his mother and widow did exactly the opposite—forming Notorious B.I.G., LLC (the “Company”) under Delaware law to manage the late rapper’s intellectual property. This litigation was perhaps the inevitable result,” she wrote.
“[Biggie’s] mother passed away in 2025. In her will, she left her interest in the Company to a trust, which the Company’s LLC Agreement identified as a transferee ‘permitted’ to receive membership units. Originally, Wallace’s mother had named her grandson as a successor trustee. Just weeks before she died, however, she amended the trust agreement to remove her grandson and name the Plaintiff [Barrow] as the sole trustee,” she continued.
“The plaintiff then attempted to effectuate the trust agreement by asserting the trust’s rights to membership units in the Company. Presumably angered by the affront to her son, the defendant-widow took the position that the LLC Agreement prohibited the transfer of membership units to the trust and refused to make distributions to the trust,” she added.
“The plaintiff [Barrow] filed this action, seeking in part a declaration that the trust is a member of the Company. The plaintiff has moved for partial summary judgment on that claim. This decision grants the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment and dismisses the defendant’s mirror-image counterclaim,” Chancellor McCormick concluded.
To sum it up, Wayne Barrow is now in control of how The Notorious B.I.G.’s music catalog and intellectual property will be disseminated for public consumption.
“Wayne is feeling vindicated. We obtained a total victory in a dispute that never should have happened,” Barrow’s lawyer Jay W. Freiberg told Rolling Stone in their report. “Wayne goes back with the family for decades, and Mama Wallace wanted Wayne to steward the legacy of the Notorious B.I.G. after she was gone, and he now will be able to do that. He knows it’s a very important task, and he’s looking forward to fulfilling Mama Wallace’s wishes in that regard.”
XXL has reached out to attorneys for both Wayne Barrow and Faith Evans for comment.
Listen to The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Ten Crack Commandments” Song
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