She played the rapper music as a child, stood by his side during his meteoric career and navigated the legal and artistic questions that arose after his killing.

Voletta Wallace, the mom of the late rapper The Notorious B.I.G., died at 78 of natural causes at her Pennsylvania home.

Voletta Wallace, the Notorious B.I.G.’s mother who kept his legacy alive in the decades following his passing, has died. Wallace was in hospice care at her residence in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, when she died of natural causes on Thursday.