The sale of The Notorious B.I.G.’s music catalog could garner more than $100 million. But some former Bad Boy employees claim that Biggie’s family will not see any proceeds from the sale.
During an interview with The Art of Dialogue, Gene Deal, Diddy’s former bodyguard, accused Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts, representatives of Biggie’s estate, of “exploiting the MC’s children and recently deceased mother with the sale of his publishing and marketing rights….”
“Knowing this lady was sick and she was in a hospice, these guys, Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts, went on and started working out deals to allegedly sell Big’s publishing, his marketing, all his rights to everything,” Deal explained.
“They are working out a deal for them. It ain’t for Miss Wallace, it ain’t for Big’s kids. Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts, those are the dudes that Puff put in play. I can’t believe this,” he continued.
“These are the dudes that when Big died, they took over the marketing and the publishing and everything […] They were Puff’s boys,” he added. “I guess it paid off ’cause now they looking to get $100 million to $150 million on this whole thing […] They about to get paid and they were placed there.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Deal claimed that Voletta Wallace never “trusted” Diddy and actively avoided him at events as she “knew he might have had something to do with her son’s death.”
“And now she’s taking it to her grave. It’s sad. And these dudes are about to get paid from that, from sticking around,” Deal said.
In early May, The Hollywood Reporter reported that half of Biggie’s music rights were close to being sold to Primary Wave, a publishing company that manages the music rights of Prince, Whitney Houston and Bob Marley.
Until her recent passing, Wallace was the executor of Biggie’s estate but Barrow and Pitts represented the estate in negotiations with Primary Wave.
While details of the deal have not been revealed, any percentage of the sale that would go to Bigge’s children, daughter T’yanna and son Christopher Jr., remains unclear.