As a single mother in Brooklyn, Wallace raised Biggie, whose legal name is Christopher Wallace, while working as a preschool teacher. The Jamaica native watched him ascend into a superstar; in 1994, she appeared in his “Juicy” music video. Biggie showed his love for his mother in the song, rapping “She loves to show me off of course/smiles every time my face is up in The Source.”

After Biggie was fatally shot in 1997, Wallace continued to honor her only son by celebrating his work. She also maintained his $160 million estate and passed down the earnings to his children T’yanna and C.J. Over the decades she has continued to seek justice for her son.

“As long as I have life there’s hope,” she told Entertainment Weekly in 2021 while promoting the Biggie: I Have a Story to Tell documentary on Netflix. “And I hope when I’m not in this world anymore, my friends and family will carry on the fight. There is always hope.”

Wallace also heard a lot of criticism about her son after his death, which hurt her deeply.

“I read something in a magazine about him where the writer said something like, ‘What do people expect when you give a bum from the ghetto a million dollars?’” Wallace said, per People. “I never raised my son to be a bum or a drug dealer. So I listened to his music and I asked a lot of questions. I cried like a baby while listening because what I heard was an intelligent human being.”

In 2009, Wallace served as the producer for Notorious, the movie about her son. Angela Bassett portrayed Biggie’s mother in the film. Wallace enjoyed another unforgettable moment in 2020 when her son was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

“Today, I’m feeling great,” Wallace told Billboard while celebrating her son’s achievement. “As a mother, I’m extremely proud of his accomplishments. You know, I still see such a young man at a young age, and sadly, he’s not here to witness all this. But it’s an astute honor, and as a mother, I’m just elated for that.”