Notorious B.I.G.'s Estate Sells Rights to Late Rapper's Iconic Music

The estate of The Notorious B.I.G. has sold a substantial portion of the late rapper's songbook to Primary Wave, a prominent music publishing firm that already controls the rights to numerous major artists' catalogs, including shares in those belonging to various influential musicians. Kurt Cobain , John Lennon and Prince .

The firm verified the agreement with Biggie’s estate on Thursday but hasn’t shared any specific financial information yet. Nonetheless, earlier reports from The Hollywood Reporter indicated that the late rapper’s publishing rights could be valued at around $100 million (€92.3 million), with an additional potential sum of up to $50 million ($46.1 million) for his master recordings.

According to sources, half of these rights along with his name and image have been sold to Primary Wave by the estate.

This provides Primary Wave with a controlling stake in Biggie’s catalog, enabling them to license his music for movies and television shows along with exploring various branding opportunities using his name and image rights.

Voletta Wallace, the rapper's mother, allegedly struck a deal with the company prior to her passing in late February.

One of the most prominent figures in the East Coast rap scene, Biggie's debut album ' Ready to Die ' (1994) is regarded as a classic within the genre. The artist, whose birth name was Christopher Wallace, was murdered in 1997 at only 24 years old, mere weeks before the launch of his subsequent album 'Life After Death'.

Thanks to his mother's management of his estate, Biggie was able to release two albums after his death and saw his life story adapted into a biographical film. Notorious .

Biggie is merely the most recent among a series of artists who have sold their catalogs to various companies. Not long ago, the electronic music producer Deadmau5 offloaded his catalog to Create Music Group for $55 million (€50.8 million).

One of the largest deals of this nature was Sony Music’s purchase of Queen’s catalogue The British glam-rock group allegedly offloaded the rights to their music for $1.27 billion (€1.17 billion) in June 2024.

Other high-profile sales In 2021, Bruce Springsteen sold his entire song collection to Sony for approximately $500 million (€465 million). In 2022, Sony purchased Bob Dylan’s complete catalog for €220 million and also obtained a 50 percent stake in Michael Jackson's music portfolio for about $600 million (approximately €558 million).