From artistic legacies to all the loved ones they've left behind,
there's more than just money to take care of after mega-successful rappers pass away.
When he was murdered in 1997, the Notorious B.I.G. - aka Biggie Smalls - was only 24 years old and
had released just one album. But Celebrity Net Worth estimates that he already had a fortune of
about $10 million, adjusted for inflation. But his biggest assets were his brand and legacy.
Since his death, his mother Voletta Wallace has been in charge of his estate.
She's tried to protect her son's legacy at all costs and not just make a quick buck.
Interestingly enough, Wallace wasn't very familiar with her son's work before his
death. She joked to Entertainment Weekly in 2021 that even when he played some tracks for her,
he must've known she would only like them if he played a censored version. But once he died,
she got much more involved. As she revealed,
"I decided then I wanted to know more about his music. 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?' I was
very hurt by that [...] 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."
Tupac Shakur was murdered at the age of 25 in 1996, but his legacy lives on. That's thanks
in great part to his mother Afeni, who took control of her son's estate after he died.
More than two decades after his death, his estate was still fighting in court,
finally winning a lawsuit over his unreleased music that had been going on for five years
in 2018. Sadly, it took so long that Afeni died halfway through the lawsuit.
After Afeni's passing, a man named Tom Whalley took over Tupac's estate.
Whalley had signed the rapper to his first major deal in the 90s and has known the family for two
decades. But in 2022, he was sued by Tupac's sister Sekyiwa. In her lawsuit, she claimed,
"Whalley has already received more than $5.5 million that he has paid
himself in the last five years [...] He has effectively embezzled millions
of dollars for his own benefit well in excess of what would be reasonably
necessary to retain a properly qualified third-party to perform such services."
XXXTentacion was only 20 when he died in 2018, but he'd already made his will. However,
there was a major development looming that affected his estate,
as a prior girlfriend of his was pregnant. The child wasn't mentioned in the will,
with everything instead going to the rapper's mother and brothers. By 2020,
a settlement was reportedly reached that set up a trust for XXXTentacion's son.
But in 2019, another party came forward, claiming the estate of the late rapper
owed them money. Producer Jimmy Duval filed a lawsuit and told XXL,
"As the producer behind 'Look At Me,' an inarguable platinum hit,
I was removed from all credits, which in turn meant that all rights and royalties owed to me,
were immediately averted. It goes without saying that everyone deserves credit for
their contributing works [...] I would never under any circumstances
disrespect X or his legacy. [I'm] only asking for what is rightful and fair."
When Nipsey Hussle was murdered in 2019 at the age of 33, he left behind two young children. Retired
pro football player Reggie Bush even started a GoFundMe for them. But Hussle was smart with
his legacy, having already set up trust funds for his children, rendering any charity unnecessary.
"There's understanding that, uh, you gotta just keep,
keep kinda moving forward for the family, for his kids."
However, trusts and wills are different, so while the kids were alright, some of
Hussle's other assets had to be dealt with. As TMZ reported, Hussle's brother Blacc Sam asked to be
put in charge of them, especially since Hussle's death resulted in lots of other offers coming in.
Eventually, his estate would get a final valuation of $4.4 million.
Court documents obtained by Radar Online revealed that the children would split this amount.
It wasn't exactly easy to sort out, though.
The mother of one of Hussle's children originally wanted to fight Blacc Sam over
who would be the estate's executor. And one creditor claimed that she was owed money from
the estate for co-writing one of Hussle's songs and didn't drop her suit until 2022.
Beastie Boy MCA, whose real name was Adam Yauch, was prepared when he died of cancer
in 2012 at the age of 47, as he reportedly left behind both a trust and a will. His
estate was worth an estimated $6.3 million, and it was divided between his wife and daughter.
However, the will had a strange provision regarding Yauch's daughter.
He and his wife apparently couldn't agree on which set
of grandparents would be granted the role of guardians in the case of their deaths.
So they reportedly left it up to fate, basing it on if they died in odd or even years.
Another provision, which was partially handwritten, could lead to some legal issues down
the line. Yauch didn't want his life's work being used to make corporations money after he died.
So to try and prevent this, he added a line to his will, which read,
"Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, in no event may my image or name or any
music or any artistic property created by me be used for advertising purposes."
However, that sentence deals with both publicity rights and copyright, which fall
under different laws. Thus, this legally-muddled sentence might not be fully enforceable.
Eazy-E was a founding member of the rap group N.W.A. and a successful record label owner.
Born Eric Wright in 1964, he tragically died of AIDS complications in 1995 at the age of 30. Less
than two weeks before he died, he married the mother of one of his children, Tomica Woods.
She was also pregnant with their second child together when he passed. Around the same time,
the rapper made a trust leaving his estate to his wife, her child, and some other family members.
But by the time Eazy-E was buried, his loved ones and associates were already fighting in court
over his money and business. The legality of the trust and even the marriage were questioned, and
everyone expected paternity suits to emerge at any time. As his manager Jerry Heller reportedly said,
"It would rip Eric's heart out if he knew what was going on here.
It's sickening to think that his children's future could go down
the drain simply because people are picking over their father's bones."
Matters still weren't completely settled by 2017. That was when Woods and Eric Darnell Wright,
one of Eazy-E's sons by another woman who goes by Lil Eazy-E, went to court over the
rights to the names N.W.A and Ruthless Records. Ultimately, Lil Eazy-E ended up losing the suit.
"Like, you know how many times I'd love to quarrel with my father right now?"
"Yeah."
One-third of the massively successful group TLC, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes died in 2002 at the
age of 30 while on a trip to Honduras, where she was doing charity work. The car she was
driving flipped over, and she was killed instantly. Almost immediately afterward,
multiple lawsuits were filed. One of Lopes' passengers in the car, T'Melle Rawlings, was
injured and sued the singer's estate. Meanwhile, Lopes' mother sued the car manufacturer.
Celebrity Net Worth estimates Lopes' estate at $500,000 when she died,
though it's not clear who inherited it. But there is evidence that her family received
the rights to her songs and vocals at the very least. As reported by The Courier-Mail,
the remaining two members of TLC were shocked when the Lopes family wouldn't let them use
unheard recordings made before the rapper died on their Kickstarter-funded 2017 album TLC, unless
they paid for them. Because of that, the only hint of Lopes on the album are clips from an interview.
And back in 2013, TLC fans were upset when a report spread online that the
group's former manager Pebbles was suing Lopes' estate for money that
she claimed she was owed by the rapper. Pebbles was quoted as saying to VH1,
"Just cuz she not here doesn't mean she ain't gotta pay what she owe [...] I honestly thought
of her as a little sister [...] a little sister that owes me money from 1992."
However, it was eventually revealed that this was a fake quote from a parody interview.
Big Pun was a big name in 90s hip hop, as he was the first Latino rapper to earn a platinum
record. Sadly, he died of an obesity-related heart attack in 2000, when he was just 28.
Celebrity Net Worth estimates that his estate was worth about $3 million at the time of his death.
However, it seems that the rights to Big Pun's music and the royalties that came from it went
to his friend and mentor, Fat Joe, rather than to Big Pun's family, who lived in a shelter for
the unhoused at one point after his death. Big Pun's widow Liza Rios then told All Hip Hop,
"For him to give so much to Terror Squad and ... at his demise at his passing for
them to turn their backs on his family, his kids ... for me, that was upsetting."
This eventually led to a lawsuit, during which an expert reportedly testified that Fat Joe owed Big
Pun's family as much as $2 million. The suit was ultimately settled with undisclosed terms in 2016.
Then in 2021, Fat Joe revealed on the Drink Champs podcast he'd turned over
Big Pun's music catalog to the family. But this didn't stop the problems between them,
with Fat Joe refusing to go to a street naming ceremony in Big Pun's honor that
same year to avoid his relatives. And a few months later, accusations over Big
Pun's estate flew between Fat Joe and Liza Rios in the comments of an Instagram post.
"Liza would be considered an ultimate survivor."
Mac Miller was only 26 when he died in 2018 from a drug overdose. While his fans were shocked and
saddened at this tragedy, Miller seems to have been very aware that it was a possibility.
Especially considering that his lyrics were often
about his substance abuse issues and the possibility of them killing him.
Perhaps this was why Miller was more proactive than most twentysomethings when he reportedly
put together a trust in 2013. This meant that even though his death was sudden and untimely,
he'd left very detailed instructions behind. As he had no children,
he left most of his $11.3 million estate to his parents, or his brother if his parents
had predeceased Miller. And he didn't forget others who were close to him.
"He remained loyalest to his friends that helped him on his way.
He was always loving and kind to others."
He made sure to include lists of valuable things that he owned, including jewelry, musical
instruments, and even his furniture, to make clear which of his friends they should be given to.
"I think we have to go all in on finding the thing we love to do."
When rapper DMX died of an overdose-induced heart attack in 2021 at the age of 50,
he left his family with a few big problems. For one thing, he didn't leave behind a will. This
is a potential issue for any estate, though eventually, the next of kin usually manages
to divide up the assets left behind, even if there's some fighting involved.
However, DMX's family had another problem, as nobody knew exactly how many children the
rapper had. Page Six reported that even six months after his death,
alleged children of his were still coming forward, raising the possible total to 15.
As trusts and estates attorney Herbert Nass explained in a statement to Page Six,
"The next big thing is to determine who are the rightful heirs. The
estate is going to ask everyone to prove paternity through DNA testing."
The estate itself, however, was not very big, about $1 million at most.
Furthermore, DMX appeared to be in debt when he died.
However, his assets and legacy could be worth a significant amount in the future,
and there is reportedly a plan for all legal heirs to have this split evenly between them.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues,
help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).