The Rude Boys appear on the cover of their 1990 debut album, "Rude Awakening." The group scored two No. 1 R&B hits with "Written All Over Your Face" and "Are You Lonely for Me." Founding member Melvin Sephus died Oct. 28, 2026, at age 61. (Atlantic Records/Rhino)
Melvin Sephus, a founding member of the Cleveland R&B group the Rude Boys, whose hits "Written All Over Your Face" and "Are You Lonely for Me" topped Billboard's R&B chart in the early 1990s, has died. He was 61.
Sephus died Oct. 28, according to Gaines Funeral Home in Ohio, which has announced funeral arrangements. No cause of death has been publicly disclosed. The singer, songwriter and musician was part of a quartet whose success grew out of Cleveland's thriving R&B scene and a chance encounter with Gerald Levert, the singer and producer who helped launch their career.
The Rude Boys — Sephus, Larry "Bingo" Marcus, Edward "Buddy" Banks and Joe Little III — came together in the late 1980s. Levert discovered the group performing locally and helped secure a recording deal with Atlantic Records.
Their 1990 debut album, "Rude Awakening," initially struggled to produce a major hit. That changed with "Written All Over Your Face." The Rude Boys featuring Gerald Levert, "Written All Over Your Face," from the 1990 Atlantic Records album "Rude Awakening." (Audio: Rhino Atlantic)The song, written by Marcus and featuring guest vocals from Levert, reached No. 1 on Billboard's R&B chart in 1991 and crossed over to No. 16 on the Hot 100. It spent 31 weeks on the R&B chart and finished the year as Billboard's top R&B single.
The recording prominently featured the voices of Little and Banks, supported by the quartet's harmonies and Levert's unmistakable presence.
The follow-up, "Are You Lonely for Me," also topped the R&B chart, giving the group two No. 1 hits from its debut album. Another single, "Heaven," reached the R&B top 20. "Are You Lonely for Me," the Rude Boys' second No. 1 R&B single from their debut album. (Audio: Rhino Atlantic)The Rude Boys arrived during the rise of new jack swing, but their music retained much of the traditional vocal-group sound associated with the O'Jays, LeVert and other soul acts from their hometown.
Sephus' contributions extended beyond singing.
On the group's second album, "Rude House," released in 1992, he received credits for vocals, keyboards, production and vocal arrangements.
That album produced "My Kinda Girl," another R&B hit with an unexpected place in hip-hop history. A remix by DJ Clark Kent featured a young Jay-Z, years before the Brooklyn rapper released his debut album, "Reasonable Doubt."
Sephus also maintained his musical relationship with the Levert family.
He contributed production and background vocals to "I Got Your Back," a song from Gerald Levert's 1995 collaboration with his father, Eddie Levert of the O'Jays, on the album "Father & Son.
The Rude Boys returned with a third album, "Rude as Ever," in 1997. Their commercial success never again matched the early Atlantic recordings, but the group's ties to Cleveland's soul music community endured.
Following Gerald Levert's death in 2006, members reunited to sing at his funeral, honoring the man who helped bring their music to national audiences.
The Rude Boys were inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2019.
Sephus was the third member of the group's best-known original lineup to die. Marcus died in 2016 and Banks in 2020, leaving Little as the last surviving member of that quartet.
His family has established an online fundraiser to help pay for funeral services, burial expenses, a headstone and a gathering in his memory.
"He gave the world his voice, his music, his talent, and his heart," relatives wrote in the appeal, organized by Maleya Johnson on behalf of the Sephus and Johnson family.
A public viewing is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 13, from 5 to 8 p.m. at Gaines Funeral Home, 5386 Lee Road in Maple Heights, Ohio.
A wake will follow at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, with a celebration of life at noon at Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church, 11115 Kinsman Road in Cleveland. Burial is scheduled at Evergreen Memorial Park Cemetery.
Music producer Timbaland appears at the Collision technology conference in Toronto on May 21, 2019. The Grammy winner has filed a lawsuit seeking more than $15 million from two former managers, alleging financial misconduct and mismanagement. (Photo: Stephen McCarthy/Collision via Sportsfile, CC BY 2.0)
Grammy-winning producer Timbaland has filed a lawsuit seeking more than $15 million from his former manager and business manager, accusing them of taking unauthorized commissions, concealing financial transactions and mishandling his fortune.
One of the defendants says the producer has nobody to blame but himself.
The lawsuit, filed Oct. 30 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, names former manager Gary Marella and business manager Bruce Seckendorf, along with associated businesses.
Timbaland, whose legal name is Timothy Mosley, alleges that the executives exploited their control over his financial affairs, taking millions in payments and commissions while failing to protect the wealth he accumulated during his decades-long career.
The complaint accuses Marella of collecting at least $2.5 million in excessive or unauthorized commissions and using Timbaland's money for personal expenses.
It also alleges irregularities involving payments from Verzuz, the music-battle platform Timbaland created with Swizz Beatz, and the sale of his music catalog.
According to the filing, Timbaland received two $5 million payments from Verzuz in 2021. He contends Marella was entitled to $1 million in commissions but instead collected $1.5 million.
The lawsuit further alleges that Marella and his company collected $775,000 more than their authorized 10% commission from Timbaland's 2019 catalog deal with Hipgnosis.
Timbaland also accuses Seckendorf and his firm of failing to make mortgage and federal tax payments while continuing to distribute substantial sums to managers and other professionals.
The producer says he discovered serious financial problems in March 2025, when a foreclosure notice arrived at his home.
An independent review subsequently uncovered questionable payments, undisclosed credit-card arrangements and transactions he says he never approved, according to the complaint.
Marella disputes the accusations.
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, he said Timbaland was already experiencing financial difficulties when they began working together in 2017.
Marella maintained that his management team generated approximately $75 million in business over nine years but that the producer continued spending beyond his means.
He also rejected the suggestion that he secretly paid himself, arguing that Seckendorf, rather than Marella, handled the producer's finances and management commissions.
Timbaland's attorney, Tynia Coats, challenged that explanation in statements provided Monday to Rolling Stone.
Coats disputed Marella's characterization of the producer's spending and alleged that financial records had been altered to conceal discrepancies.
She cited a consultant payment allegedly recorded as $16,000 despite an actual payment of $165,000. Timbaland and his attorney also alleged that an email was altered to make it appear he had authorized a $250,000 payment to an attorney rather than $100,000.
Those allegations have not been established in court.
The lawsuit also accuses Marella of mismanaging Beatclub, a music marketplace the two developed together. Marella has disputed those allegations, attributing the venture's financial difficulties to problems developing its technology.
The dispute involves business arrangements behind one of hip-hop and R&B's most influential production careers. Timbaland's work with Aaliyah, Missy Elliott, Justin Timberlake and other artists helped shape the sound of popular music in the late 1990s and 2000s.
The lawsuit seeks damages, an accounting of disputed transactions and a jury trial. It includes claims of fraudulent concealment, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and civil theft.
Rapper Yella Beezy appears in a 2025 interview with BOSS TALK 101. The Dallas rapper, whose legal name is Markies Conway, is standing trial on a capital murder charge in connection with the 2020 killing of fellow rapper MO3. (Photo: BOSS TALK 101/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0)
The prosecution's case against Yella Beezy has moved from a witness who says he lied to cellphone records that may be just as important for what they don't show.
An FBI agent testified Tuesday that phones linked to several people implicated in the 2020 killing of Dallas rapper MO3 traveled through overlapping areas and showed significant communication around the time of the shooting.
But the same records revealed no direct cellphone contact between Yella Beezy and two other defendants in the case.
Yella Beezy, whose legal name is Markies Conway, has pleaded not guilty to capital murder. Prosecutors accuse him of arranging the killing of MO3, born Melvin Noble, who was chased down and fatally shot on Interstate 35 in Dallas on Nov. 11, 2020.
FBI Special Agent Taylor Page spent much of Tuesday walking jurors through historical cellphone records involving Conway, convicted gunman Kewon White and other people connected to the investigation.
Page testified that phones associated with Conway and White traveled through the same general areas during a trip to Houston over Halloween weekend in 2020, less than two weeks before MO3 was killed.
He acknowledged, however, that cellphone-tower information cannot prove who was carrying a particular phone or whether two devices were inside the same vehicle.
The agent also described a surge in communications between White and another defendant, Devin Brown, around the time of the killing.
According to Page's analysis, White's phone connected to towers serving the area of the shooting before the device moved away. Communications between White and Brown increased sharply around the attack.
Prosecutors also presented evidence concerning Conway's movements after the killing.
Page testified that Conway returned to Dallas from Los Angeles on Nov. 20 and withdrew $40,000 from a Chase Bank branch in Frisco. Phone records placed another man connected to the case, Jerry Johnson, in the Frisco area shortly afterward.
Prosecutors have alleged that money was paid to arrange MO3's murder, but the withdrawal alone does not establish that the cash reached White or was connected to the shooting.
Under cross-examination, defense attorney Toby Shook challenged the accuracy and completeness of the cellphone analysis.
Page acknowledged that the records did not show direct communications between Conway and either White or Brown. He also agreed that cell-tower information identifies general coverage areas rather than a person's exact location.
The defense pointed to gaps in the timeline, including an unanalyzed three-hour period on the afternoon of the killing.
The testimony followed another significant development Monday, when Conway's longtime friend Theodore Thomas, a rapper known as Jose Bodega, disavowed allegations he previously made to a grand jury.
Thomas said he invented statements about a feud involving Conway and MO3 and an alleged conversation about paying for the killing.
He testified that pressure from federal authorities facing him with serious criminal charges led him to provide false information.
Prosecutors challenged that explanation, suggesting that Thomas changed his account because of his longstanding loyalty to Conway.
Judge Chika Anyiam instructed jurors that Thomas' earlier statements could be considered when evaluating his credibility, but not as evidence that the allegations were true or that Conway was guilty.
White was convicted of capital murder in September and sentenced to life in prison. Conway is being tried separately.
Jurors were dismissed early Tuesday to allow them to vote in the election.
The trial is continuing, with prosecutors attempting to establish how the alleged killing was arranged and the defense challenging whether the evidence connects Conway to that arrangement.
Paris Jackson performs at La Maroquinerie in Paris on March 5, 2022. Jackson is asking a Los Angeles judge to order $600 million transferred from her late father's estate to a family trust established for his children. (Photo: Eb59/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Michael Jackson left behind a fortune and a trust intended to provide for his children. Seventeen years after his death, his daughter says the trust still hasn't received the money it was supposed to hold.
Paris Jackson is asking a Los Angeles judge to order the transfer of $600 million from her father's estate into the Michael Jackson Family Trust, escalating a dispute over how the late superstar's wealth is being managed.
In a petition filed Oct. 29, Jackson argues that the estate has accumulated enough money from music deals, property sales and other transactions to begin funding the trust while preserving sufficient assets to meet its remaining obligations.
The filing points to an estate accounting showing approximately $850 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of 2024. Her attorneys estimate that roughly $600 million could be transferred after accounting for potential liabilities.
The request is not for an immediate $600 million payment to Paris personally. She wants the money placed in the trust established for her and her brothers, Prince and Bigi.
Under the trust arrangements described in the petition, the siblings were intended to begin receiving income from their respective shares at age 21, followed by portions of the principal at ages 30, 35 and 40.
All three have passed their 21st birthdays, and Prince turns 30 next February.
The estate disputes the suggestion that the children have been deprived of financial support.
In a statement to People, the estate said more than $200 million has already been distributed for the beneficiaries' benefit. It also denied allegations that payments to the siblings were withheld or reduced after Paris began questioning the estate's management.
The executors contend that unresolved legal and financial obligations, including a continuing tax dispute with the Internal Revenue Service, prevent the trusts from being fully funded.
The IRS originally sought approximately $700 million in taxes and penalties, according to the estate. Although that amount was substantially reduced through litigation, the estate maintains that the matter remains unresolved.
Paris' attorneys argue that those uncertainties do not justify delaying a partial transfer.
Her filing cites proceeds from major transactions involving EMI Music Publishing, Neverland Ranch and a deal with Sony involving Jackson's music and intellectual property. Together, the transactions generated more than $1 billion in cash before taxes and expenses, the petition contends.
The dispute is part of a broader fight over the administration of an estate that was deeply in debt when Jackson died in 2009 but subsequently became one of the music industry's most valuable collections of assets.
Earlier this year, a judge ordered $625,000 in bonus payments made to outside law firms returned to the estate after sustaining an objection by Paris. The estate disagreed with that decision and emphasized that the payments had not gone to its executors.
John Branca is now the estate's remaining executor following the death of longtime co-executor John McClain in May.
A hearing on Paris Jackson's request is scheduled for Dec. 4.
Wu-Tang Clan performs at Accor Arena in Paris on March 11, 2026. The group will headline the Detroit Lions' Thanksgiving halftime show Nov. 26, with Eminem and Paul Rosenberg serving as executive producers. (Photo by ManoSolo13241324 via Wikimedia Commons, CC0)Wu-Tang Clan is bringing Shaolin to Detroit for Thanksgiving, with Eminem and his longtime manager, Paul Rosenberg, arranging a national television appearance for the legendary hip-hop collective.
The Detroit Lions announced Sunday that Wu-Tang will headline halftime of the team's Nov. 26 game against the Chicago Bears at Ford Field.
The performance will air nationally on CBS during the Lions' 87th annual Thanksgiving Day Classic, which kicks off at 1 p.m. Eastern.
Eminem and Rosenberg, the president of Shady Records, selected the group as part of their multiyear agreement to oversee the team's Thanksgiving halftime entertainment.
The pairing brings together two defining forces of 1990s hip-hop: the Staten Island collective whose raw production and nine-member lineup helped reshape East Coast rap, and the Detroit superstar who followed that decade's underground rap traditions to worldwide fame.
It also comes at a major moment in Wu-Tang's history.
The group is winding down its “Wu-Tang Forever: The Final Chamber” farewell tour and is scheduled to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Nov. 14, less than two weeks before the football game.
The Hall of Fame announced Wu-Tang's selection in April, recognizing the collective's innovative recording style, extensive solo catalog and influence on hip-hop culture.
Rosenberg said the Thanksgiving booking reflects a shared admiration dating to the group's earliest recordings.
“Both Eminem and myself have been Wu fans since the early 90's,” he said in the Lions' announcement.
Rosenberg described a Wu-Tang performance in Detroit as both unexpected and fitting for the holiday tradition.
The Lions' partnership with Eminem and Rosenberg began in 2025. That year's halftime show featured Detroit rocker Jack White, with a surprise appearance by Eminem.
Whether the rapper will also perform with Wu-Tang this year remains unknown. The team has not announced any special guests, a set list or a performance by Eminem himself.
For Wu-Tang, the nationally televised appearance will introduce the group's sprawling catalog to an audience extending well beyond hip-hop's traditional fans.
Formed on Staten Island in the early 1990s, the collective broke through with its 1993 debut, “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers),” a landmark release built around RZA's spare, sample-heavy production and the contrasting styles of its MCs.
Songs including “Protect Ya Neck” and “C.R.E.A.M.” helped establish the group's reputation, while members went on to individual careers that produced such influential albums as Method Man's “Tical,” Raekwon's “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...” and GZA's “Liquid Swords.”
The group also challenged the music industry's traditional business model by allowing members to pursue separate recording contracts while maintaining the collective's identity.
The Rock Hall's 2026 class includes all 10 recognized Wu-Tang members, including the late Ol' Dirty Bastard, who died in 2004.
Its upcoming induction will put the group alongside fellow honorees including Sade, Luther Vandross, Queen Latifah and MC Lyte, although the latter two are being recognized in the Early Influence category.
Wu-Tang's Thanksgiving appearance is another milestone in a career that has already taken the group from underground New York clubs to arenas around the world.
Detroit Lions President and CEO Rich Haddad welcomed the booking, describing the group's participation as an addition to one of the NFL's longest-running holiday traditions.
Michigan native Antonio Cipriano, an actor and singer with Broadway credits, will perform the national anthem.
The Lions have not announced the length of Wu-Tang's halftime set or which members will take the field.
For now, the confirmed lineup promises a rare collision of Detroit football tradition and Staten Island hip-hop history, with Eminem helping make the connection from behind the scenes.
Ye performs atop a globe-shaped stage at Soldier Field in Chicago on Sept. 4, 2026. He drew a reported 80,210 fans to his Halloween concert in Houston, where Drake was among those in attendance. (Photo by @goodasssub via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)Ye drew a reported 80,210 fans to Houston's Reliant Stadium on Halloween, bringing Drake into the audience, Travis Scott and other guests into the spotlight, and a Texas lawmaker into a growing controversy over his decision to honor the rapper.
Concert organizers and stadium officials called Saturday's turnout a U.S. stadium attendance record for a rap concert. The figure, reported by the Houston Chronicle, has not been independently audited.
It would also put the show seven people ahead of the stadium's previous announced concert attendance record, set March 22 when country singer Cody Johnson drew 80,203 fans during the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, performed for nearly three hours atop an enormous globe-shaped stage, backed by elaborate lighting and pyrotechnics.
The concert covered much of his career, from early hits including “Jesus Walks,” “All Falls Down” and “Gold Digger” to more recent material.
Playboi Carti joined him for several songs, including “Carnival” and “Off the Grid.” Ye's daughter North West appeared for three numbers, including “Talking,” according to the Chronicle's account of the show.
Houston rapper Travis Scott also made an appearance.
Drake watching Ye and Playboi Carti perform “Carnival” together in Houston last night. 🐐🔥 https://t.co/8qW8I1WljM
But one of the night's most talked-about guests never took the stage.
Fan-shot footage appeared to show Drake watching from a suite with Scott, who had accompanied him to a Houston Rockets game earlier that evening.
The sighting attracted attention because of Drake's complicated history with Ye, whose relationship has included public feuds, attempted reconciliations and a joint appearance at the 2021 Free Larry Hoover benefit concert.
Neither rapper has announced another reconciliation. Drake was not listed as a performer, and his presence alone does not establish that their differences have been resolved.
The biggest controversy surrounding the Houston show, however, emerged after the music ended.
Texas state Rep. Ron Reynolds, a Democrat representing part of Fort Bend County, presented Ye with a “Global Icon Award” and a Texas flag he said had flown over the state Capitol in Austin in the rapper's honor.
“This flag was flown over our Capitol in Austin for none other than Kanye West,” Reynolds said during the presentation, according to video reported by Chron.
Reynolds described the recognition as being presented on behalf of Texas, but it was not immediately clear who authorized the award or whether it represented an official action by the state.
Ye was presented with a Global Icon Award and a special flag flown over the Texas State Capitol by State Representative Ron Reynolds following his historic Houston concert last night 🏆 “This flag was flown over our Capitol in Austin for none other than Kanye West. We’re so honored to have him in H-Town where we’re showing him mad love and respect.”
The recognition drew criticism because of Ye's history of antisemitic and racist statements, praise for Adolf Hitler and use of Nazi imagery.
Those controversies have previously resulted in lost business partnerships and cancellations of planned performances.
Before the Houston concert, stadium officials warned attendees that clothing, signs or other displays promoting hatred would not be permitted. Holocaust Museum Houston offered free admission over the weekend as part of its effort to confront antisemitism through education.
Ye apologized for his past statements in a full-page Wall Street Journal advertisement in January, attributing his behavior to a mental health crisis and saying he was committed to accountability and change.
His return to American stadiums has nevertheless demonstrated considerable commercial appeal, including a July performance at San Antonio's Alamodome that drew more than 60,000 fans.
The Houston concert left two markedly different images of Ye's place in popular culture: a stadium filled with fans celebrating his music and a public official facing questions about honoring him.
With additional performances scheduled in Dallas on Nov. 7 and Phoenix on Nov. 21, that contrast is likely to follow him beyond Houston.
Juan Atkins, a founding figure of Detroit techno whose 1983 Cybotron recording “Clear” was sampled in Missy Elliott's hit “Lose Control,” died at 64. His death was confirmed Sunday by his representatives.
A sound that helped invent Detroit techno in 1983 was still moving dance floors more than two decades later, when Missy Elliott built one of her biggest hits around it.
The man behind that sound, Juan Atkins, has died at 64.
Atkins, a Detroit DJ and producer widely regarded as one of techno's founding figures, was found unresponsive in a Mexico City hotel room ahead of a scheduled Halloween performance. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead Sunday, according to Greensmith Artists, his agency, which confirmed his death to electronic music publication Resident Advisor.
A cause of death has not been officially established.
Atkins helped lay the foundation for electronic dance music through his work with Cybotron, Model 500 and his independent Metroplex label. Alongside fellow Detroit innovators Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, he became part of the Belleville Three, the trio credited with helping establish Detroit techno.
But his influence reached well beyond electronic music.
In 1983, Atkins and collaborator Richard Davis released “Clear” as Cybotron, combining a relentless electronic rhythm, synthesizers and an otherworldly sense of space.
In 2005, Missy Elliott sampled “Clear” for “Lose Control,” her hit featuring Ciara and Fatman Scoop. The song became one of the defining dance records of the decade, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Missy Elliott's 2005 hit "Lose Control," featuring Ciara and Fatman Scoop, samples Cybotron's 1983 recording "Clear," co-written by Juan Atkins and Richard Davis. (Missy Elliott/YouTube)
Atkins and Davis received songwriting credits on the recording, which also sampled Hot Streak's “Body Work.”
For listeners who knew the song primarily through Elliott's music video and its explosive choreography, the connection offered an introduction to an earlier generation of Black electronic music.
Atkins' musical education began in Detroit, where he absorbed the funk of George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic alongside the electronic experiments of Germany's Kraftwerk. Radio personality the Electrifying Mojo helped bring those sounds together for a generation of Detroit listeners.
After moving to Belleville as a teenager, Atkins befriended May and Saunderson. Their shared interest in synthesizers, dance music and futuristic production eventually helped create a sound unlike the disco, funk and pop dominating American radio.
Atkins founded Cybotron with Davis in 1980. Along with “Clear,” the duo recorded influential tracks including “Alleys of Your Mind” and “Techno City.”
He later moved forward under the name Model 500, releasing “No UFO's” in 1985 and establishing Metroplex, a label that became central to Detroit's developing electronic music scene.
As the music spread overseas, particularly through clubs in Europe, the innovations of Atkins and his Detroit contemporaries helped shape a worldwide movement.
The word “techno” itself became closely associated with the sound through Atkins' music and the late-1980s British compilation that introduced Detroit artists to a broader international audience.
Saunderson, one of his fellow Belleville Three members, paid tribute to Atkins on social media.
“Juan was the originator of Techno, a true visionary who opened the door for so many of us, myself included,” he wrote, according to Mixmag.
Saunderson also recalled Atkins teaching him how to finish his first record, “Triangle of Love,” a gesture that helped launch his own career.
Other artists, including Kenny Larkin, Roger Sanchez and Fatboy Slim, joined the tributes following the announcement of Atkins' death.
Although techno became a global commercial genre, its origins in Detroit's Black music community have not always received equal recognition.
Atkins' recordings remain among the clearest evidence of that history: music rooted in funk and electronic experimentation that crossed continents, influenced generations of producers and eventually found its way into hip-hop and R&B.
More than 40 years after Cybotron recorded “Clear,” the beat that helped define his legacy still sounds unmistakably ahead of its time.
The Notorious B.I.G. and Faith Evans are pictured on the cover of Tymaz's 2021 single “Biggie With The Faith Freestyle.” A Delaware judge has ruled that a trust established by the late rapper's mother, Voletta Wallace, is entitled to more than $12.5 million in distributions from the company Evans manages to oversee his intellectual property.
The Notorious B.I.G. warned against mixing family and business. Nearly three decades after his death, a Delaware judge has invoked that advice while presiding over a multimillion-dollar dispute involving his widow, his children and his late mother's share of his music empire.
The latest ruling gives a trust established by Biggie's mother, Voletta Wallace, the right to more than $12.5 million in company distributions, plus interest, rejecting an attempt to limit the amount to about $48,600.
Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled Tuesday that the Voletta Wallace Revocable Trust is entitled to $12,518,336 attributable to Wallace's ownership interest in Notorious B.I.G., LLC.
FROM THE COURT RECORD
Read the Delaware judge's rulings in the dispute over the late Voletta Wallace's ownership interest in Notorious B.I.G., LLC.
The company, formed in 2007 by Wallace and singer Faith Evans, manages intellectual property associated with the late rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace.
Evans, Biggie's widow, became the company's sole manager after his mother died Feb. 21, 2025.
At the heart of the dispute is a distinction between when the trust formally became a member of the company and when it acquired the right to receive money.
The trust did not complete its admission as a member until Dec. 12, 2025. Evans and the company argued that it was entitled to only $48,612 in distributions associated with that later period.
But McCormick ruled that Wallace's economic rights transferred to her estate when she died and subsequently passed to the trust under her will.
That meant the trust's right to the money began months before its formal admission to the company.
The judge also awarded prejudgment interest at the statutory rate, compounded quarterly, beginning when the distributions became payable.
Court filings show that Wallace and Evans originally held equal ownership stakes in the company. A 2023 agreement gave each of Biggie's children, T'yanna Wallace and Christopher Jordan Wallace, rights to 25% of distributions, leaving Evans and Voletta Wallace with 25% apiece.
The dispute intensified after Voletta Wallace changed her estate documents Feb. 6, 2025, just 15 days before her death.
The changes removed her grandson Christopher Jordan Wallace and another previously designated successor from trustee and executor positions, leaving longtime Biggie associate Wayne Barrow as sole trustee and executor.
Barrow subsequently sought to establish the trust's rights in the company. Evans disputed its membership status and withheld distributions pending verification.
In August, McCormick granted Barrow's request for partial summary judgment, rejecting the company's opposing interpretation of its operating agreement.
The judge opened that earlier opinion with a reference to Biggie's 1997 song “Ten Crack Commandments,” citing his advice to keep family and business separate.
Tuesday's ruling settles the remaining questions over the trust's membership date and the distributions owed to it.
Evans and the company had pointed to a separate Pennsylvania proceeding in which her son, Christopher Jordan Wallace, is challenging Barrow's authority to administer his grandmother's estate.
They proposed placing disputed funds with the Delaware court while that challenge continued.
McCormick rejected the proposal, finding that the Pennsylvania dispute does not prevent the trust from receiving the distributions to which it is entitled.
The ruling concerns money attributable to Wallace's interest in Notorious B.I.G., LLC. It does not establish that Evans is personally liable for the entire amount.
The judge instructed Barrow's attorneys to submit a final proposed order within 20 days.
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