Notorious B.I.G. Estate Ruling, My Chemical Romance Case, Drake Lawsuit & More Music Law News

THE BIG STORY: A messy lawsuit over The Notorious B.I.G. got a final ruling, but a broader legal war over the rap legend’s estate is far from over.

A judge ruled last week that Biggie’s widow Faith Evans must immediately distribute $14 million in estate profits to a trust set up by his late mother, Voletta Wallace, before she died last year. Much of the disputed money came from the estate’s landmark 2025 catalog deal with Primary Wave, which acquired a stake in the iconic rapper’s copyrights and likeness rights.

The monetary judgment resolved a case filed by Wayne Barrow, Biggie’s former manager who runs that trust, that claimed Evans was refusing to recognize that the group had inherited Voletta’s 25 percent cut of estate profits. It followed an August ruling in which the judge sided decisively with Barrow on that dispute — even quoting from Biggie’s posthumous track “Ten Crack Commandments.”

“Wallace presciently cautioned: ‘Keep your family and business completely separated,’” wrote the judge. “After Wallace’s tragic death, however, his mother and widow did exactly the opposite.”

Barring reversal on appeal, last week’s ruling will end the lawsuit between Barrow and Evans. But it won’t resolve a separate case, filed by Biggie’s son CJ, that claims Barrow manipulated Voletta into giving him complete control of her estate before she died. The manager has denied those accusations and claimed CJ’s lawsuit was engineered by Evans, which her lawyers deny.

That case remains in the earliest stages, meaning that even after last week’s big ruling, we still have months or years of legal battles ahead over the final affairs of The Notorious B.I.G. Stay tuned.

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Other top stories this week…

— Following Lil Durk’s murder-for-hire acquittal, Jay-Z and J. Cole urged a judge to release the rapper on bail as he awaits a second trial on racketeering charges: “Release would allow [Durk] to support his family and continue the work in his community that I saw firsthand,” Hov wrote.

— A lawsuit filed against My Chemical Romance by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders quickly ended after the band promised it wouldn’t use look-alike uniforms in future shows. But later court filings claimed that had actually always been the plan — and that the lawsuit didn’t factor in.

— The headline-grabbing copyright case accusing Drake of stealing the chorus of his smash single “Janice STFU” was abruptly dropped, two weeks after it was filed and after Drake’s team accused the plaintiff of fabricating evidence. Nothing to see here, surely.

— A judge ruled Universal Music Group (UMG) has legal standing to keep pursuing a legal battle demanding the return of what the label has called the “first known” recording of The Beatles from the estate of a famed Abbey Road sound engineer.

— The war between Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris and estate executor John Branca heated up — first with her accusation that he wants to pay himself more than $100 million, then with her demand that the estate distribute $600 million to a family trust. Those are … big numbers.

— Timbaland sued his former manager and business manager — both well-known industry professionals — in a $15 million lawsuit that claims the pair committed widespread misconduct in order to “enrich themselves” at the star’s expense.

— Florida prosecutors dropped a felony charge over domestic violence accusations against Rick Ross, though he still faces a misdemeanor battery charge over the alleged August incident involving then-girlfriend Jazzma Kendrick.

— As UMG and Sony Music continue battling Suno in court over AI training, both sides have fought legal skirmishes to gather evidence from other key market players, including Apple Music, the Mechanical Licensing Collective and Suno’s VC investors.