Voletta Wallace (1946–2025)
Voletta Wallace, the Jamaican-born mom of rapper The Notorious B.I.G., died on Feb. 21 on the age of 78. According to her household, Wallace’s dying was attributed to pure causes when she handed away in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, earlier this yr.
Wallace was extensively revered for preserving her son’s legacy in hip-hop and advocating for his affect in music historical past. As the overseer of his property, she ensured that his wealth was handed right down to his household, together with his daughter, T’yanna Wallace, TMZ noted.
Voletta has additionally been her son’s greatest supporter, tirelessly championing his reminiscence and contributions to the music world. In September 2024, she took to Instagram to precise her gratitude to followers for reaching a document variety of streams for Biggie’s songs on Apple Music.
“2.5 Billions on @applemusic. Thank you!!!” she penned.
Voletta’s dedication additionally prolonged past music. She was the top of The Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation, a charity she established to reinforce the lives of inner-city youth by way of schooling and the humanities. In August 2024, Voletta and the inspiration’s workforce visited A Lovely Trip to the Sound Theater in Pennsylvania, the place they posed in entrance of a mural honoring Biggie. This go to marked one other significant second in her ongoing effort to maintain her son’s spirit alive.
Fans and artists alike mourned her as a guardian of one in every of rap’s most iconic figures throughout her funeral.
D’Angelo (1974–2025)
Legendary neo-soul artist D’Angelo (Michael Eugene Archer) died on Oct. 14, at 51, after a battle with most cancers, extensively reported as pancreatic most cancers. The music icon gave followers timeless hits like “Untitled (How Does It Feel)”, “Lady”, and “Brown Sugar,” fusing uncooked, weak, and spiritually rooted lyrics that moved.
He was recognized for merging genres like gospel, jazz, funk, and hip-hop into one thing uniquely his personal. D’Angelo’s passing despatched shockwaves by way of the music world. His household launched a press release expressing heartbreak and gratitude for his “legacy of terribly transferring music,” whereas followers and fellow artists shared tributes throughout social platforms.
Angie Stone (1951–2025)
Soul and R&B singer Angie Stone died on March 1, at age 63, in a visitors accident in Alabama. Her van, getting back from a live performance, was struck by a truck after overturning, and she or he was the lone fatality.
Stone’s voice and songwriting — together with classics like “Wish I Didn’t Miss You”— influenced a era of artists. Her passing got here simply 7 months earlier than D’Angelo’s premature dying, a shock, as the 2 stars left behind their son Michael Archer II, who paid tribute to each celebs in October after information of his father’s dying broke.
“I’m grateful to your ideas and prayers throughout these very troublesome instances, because it has been a really tough and unhappy yr for me,” mentioned Archer in a press release shared with BOSSIP. “I ask that you simply please proceed to maintain me in your ideas because it won’t be straightforward, however one factor that each my mother and father taught [sic] me was to be robust, and I intend to just do that.”
Roberta Flack (1937–2025)
Roberta Flack, whose timeless ballads like “Killing Me Softly With His Song” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” grew to become cultural touchstones, died Feb. 24, at age 88. She had been dwelling with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in later years, a progressive neurodegenerative illness that assaults nerve cells.
Her memorial on March 10 was a star-studded celebration of her life, with Lauryn Hill, Stevie Wonder, Wyclef Jean, and Lisa Fischer amongst these honoring her legacy by way of music.
Before powering by way of a teary-eyed rendition of Flack’s timeless cowl “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face,” Hill shed a number of tears whereas reflecting on Flack’s legacy.
“Her existence was a type of resistance,” Hill told the gang throughout her speech. “I like Ms. Roberta Flack… Roberta Flack is [a] legend.”
Stevie Wonder additionally paid a tribute to the R&B and Soul diva with a track titled “I Can See the Sun,” and shared a number of form phrases concerning the music titan, praising her for spreading her “love throughout this world.”
“The wonderful thing about not being able to see along with your eyes is the good alternative of with the ability to even higher see along with your coronary heart. And so I knew how lovely Roberta was, not seeing her visually however with the ability to see and really feel her coronary heart,” the hitmaker added.
Irv Gotti (1970–2025)
Veteran producer and label govt Irv Gotti (born Irving Domingo Lorenzo Jr.) died on Feb. 5 on the age of 54, following ongoing well being points lately related to diabetes and strokes.
A towering determine in hip-hop, Gotti left an indelible mark on the style by serving to form the careers and sound of artists resembling DMX, Ja Rule, and Ashanti by way of Murder Inc., the influential label he co-founded together with his brother, Christopher Gotti, in 1998. Before launching the imprint, Gotti made his identify as an A&R govt at Def Jam, the place he was instrumental in signing a number of artists to the label. Working underneath the alias DJ Irv, he additionally proved his expertise as a producer, crafting Jay-Z’s “Can I Live” from the rapper’s 1996 debut album, Reasonable Doubt.
After Murder Inc. was later rebranded as The Inc., Gotti expanded the label’s scope past hip-hop, signing pop singer Vanessa Carlton and co-producing her 2007 album, Heroes and Thieves, alongside Rick Rubin and Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind.
In early 2024, Gotti spoke brazenly concerning the toll diabetes had taken on his well being, saying the illness was step by step weakening his physique. TMZ reported that he had suffered a minor stroke greater than six months earlier because of diabetes-related issues. At the time, his consultant mentioned Gotti had made vital life-style adjustments, together with adopting a more healthy food plan, and had since recovered, spending time at residence together with his household and specializing in his well-being.
“Irv has been battling diabetes for years, which precipitated him to have a minor stroke over six months in the past,” Gotti’s rep mentioned in a press release. “He has since modified his food plan to consuming extra healthily. He’s been profitable in making a full restoration. Irv shouldn’t be in a rehab facility. He is at residence together with his household, having fun with life.”
Some of his most well-known hits embrace the multi-platinum monitor “Always On Time” by Ja Rule that includes Ashanti, and Ashanti’s “Foolish.”
George Foreman (1949–2025)
Boxing legend George Foreman — the two-time heavyweight champion and later enterprise icon — died on March 21, at age 76. His household introduced his peaceable passing surrounded by family members. After profitable a gold medal in boxing on the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, George Foreman quickly established himself as one in every of America’s most promising younger athletes. Turning skilled quickly after, he stormed by way of the heavyweight division with legendary knockout energy, compiling an ideal 37–0 document with 35 knockouts by 1972, in response to NewsOne.
That similar yr, Foreman delivered one of the crucial dominant performances in boxing historical past by defeating reigning champion Joe Frazier in simply two rounds to assert the heavyweight title.
Beyond the ring, Foreman reinvented himself as a wildly profitable businessman, changing into the face of the George Foreman Grill, which went on to promote over 100 million items worldwide. His affable persona and savvy offers—together with promoting the grill’s naming rights for $137.5 million—helped construct an estimated web price of over $300 million by 2022.
Jimmy Cliff (1944–2025)
Reggae icon Jimmy Cliff, whose music introduced world recognition to Jamaican sounds, died on Nov. 24 at 81. His spouse confirmed he suffered a seizure and issues from pneumonia.
“I’m grateful for his household, associates, fellow artists, and coworkers who’ve shared his journey with him. To all his followers world wide, please know that your assist was his energy all through his complete profession. He actually appreciated every fan for his or her love,” she wrote on Nov. 24.
Cliff’s hits — together with “The Harder They Come” and “Many Rivers to Cross” — made him a foundational determine in reggae and world music. Beloved for his capability to weave social commentary into soulful, resonant music, Cliff constructed a listing that formed reggae’s world identification. Themes of liberation, resilience, and nature flowed all through his work, becoming for somebody born throughout a storm and destined to shake world music.
Jimmy Cliff was a two-time Grammy winner, receiving awards for Best Reggae Recording in 1986 for “Cliff Hanger” and Best Reggae Album in 2013 for Rebirth.
Assata Shakur (1947-2025)
Activist and revolutionary Assata Olugbala Shakur died on Sept. 25 in Havana, Cuba, on the age of 78. Cuban officers and her daughter confirmed that her dying was because of well being issues and superior age after a long time dwelling in exile underneath political asylum. Shakur, born JoAnne Deborah Byron and later referred to as JoAnne Deborah Chesimard after her marriage, was born in Queens in 1947. She was a outstanding member of the Black Panther Party and later related to the Black Liberation Army.
Her life grew to become a focus of discussions on racial justice, U.S.–Cuba relations, and revolutionary activism. On May 2, 1973, Assata Shakur and two different members of the Black Liberation Army had been stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike by State Trooper Werner Foerster and one other freeway officer. The encounter shortly escalated right into a violent confrontation, ending in a shootout that left Foerster and one other particular person lifeless.
Supporters of Shakur have consistently challenged the case, arguing that her trial was deeply flawed. They level to the absence of conclusive bodily proof, conflicting eyewitness accounts, and the broader historic context of legislation enforcement efforts—together with these by the FBI—to undermine and sabotage civil rights and Black energy actions throughout that period.
Regardless, Shakur escaped from jail in 1979 and finally resurfaced in Cuba, the place she was granted political asylum and lived out the rest of her life. She spent her life after jail advocating for Black liberation and ensuring her story was advised. Her 1988 autobiography, Assata, grew to become a blueprint for resistance and self-determination, extensively studied by activists, students, and younger individuals trying to find a voice within the wrestle. Her life impressed actions like Assata’s Daughters in Chicago, and her identify was shouted in protests in Ferguson and the world over. Assata was a human rights activist and freedom fighter who stood in solidarity with oppressed individuals worldwide — and for that, her legacy will endure.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner (1970-2025)
Beloved actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner died on July 21 at 54. Warner, finest recognized for his position as Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, drowned accidentally whereas swimming throughout a household trip in Costa Rica after being caught in a robust present. Emergency responders tried resuscitation, however he was pronounced lifeless on the scene. Warner’s dying was formally dominated an unintentional drowning (asphyxiation by submersion).
Carl Carlton (1952-2025)
Funk and R&B singer Carl Carlton died at the age of 73 on Dec. 15, abandoning a legacy that helped outline soul and funk music throughout generations. The music titan was recognized for songs like “I Can Feel It” and his funk and soul basic “She’s a Bad Mama Jama.”
His son, Carlton Hudgens II, confirmed the information on Sunday, Dec. 14, sharing a tribute on Facebook alongside a photograph of his father. “RIP Dad, Legend Carl Carlton, singer of ‘She’s a Bad Mama Jama,’” he wrote. “Long arduous struggle in life, and you’ll be missed.”
Born Carlton Hudgens in Detroit in 1952, Carlton started his music profession at a younger age, recording within the Nineteen Sixties underneath the identify Little Carl Carlton. He later dropped the nickname and located early success in 1971, when his single “I Can Feel It” reached the Billboard Soul Singles chart. The track was a uncooked, emotional expression of affection and longing, showcasing the gritty, heartfelt vocal fashion that may develop into his signature.
Carlton reached mainstream success in 1974 together with his cowl of “Everlasting Love,” which reached No. 6, cracking the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track, a joyful and optimistic declaration of romantic devotion, launched Carlton to a wider pop viewers whereas sustaining his soul roots. It stays one of the crucial recognizable variations of the basic love track.
Carlton had suffered a stroke six years in the past, although an official reason behind dying has but to be introduced by the singer’s household, in response to People and SoulTracks.
Let’s hold all of the Black celebrities who died in 2025 in our ideas and prayers.
Mickey Lee, a former Big Brother contestant whose vibrant persona made her a fan favourite, handed away early Christmas night after struggling a number of cardiac arrests. She was 35.
News of her dying got here simply days after supporters realized she had been hospitalized in crucial situation.
“With profound disappointment, the household of Mickey Lee proclaims her transition on Christmas within the early night,” her household mentioned in a press release shared to Instagram. “Mickey captured the hearts of audiences nationwide by way of her look on Big Brother, the place her authenticity, energy, and spirit left a long-lasting impression on followers and fellow forged members alike. She shall be remembered for the enjoyment she introduced into the lives of so many and for the real connections she fashioned each on and off display.”
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