Who Is Faith Evans?
Faith Evans, an iconic figure in the world of R&B, is celebrated for her powerful, honeyed soprano voice, exceptional songwriting skills, and proficiency in record production. Despite her extensive contributions to music, her legacy is often intertwined with hip hop due to her affiliation with Bad Boy Records and her marriage to rap legend, the Notorious B.I.G. Signed to Sean “Puffy” Combs’ influential label in 1994, Evans earned the title of the First Lady of Bad Boy. That same year, she married Christopher Wallace, known as the Notorious B.I.G., and became a central figure in the infamous East Coast-West Coast rap rivalry, which tragically led to the deaths of both Wallace and his rival, Tupac Shakur, in 1996-1997.
As the mother of Wallace’s son, CJ, along with her daughter Chyna and two more sons, Joshua and Ryder, Evans eventually found a way to navigate her grief and channel it into her music. Her heartfelt tribute to her late husband, “I’ll Be Missing You,” a collaboration with Combs and the group 112, earned her a Grammy and remains one of her most poignant works. Over her illustrious career, Evans has released six solo albums and a posthumous duets album with the Notorious B.I.G., which debuted in May 2017.
Early Life
Faith Evans’ journey as a performer began at the tender age of three when she sang “Let the Sunshine In” from the musical Hair in front of her congregation at Emanuel Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. Recalling this pivotal moment in her 2008 memoir, Keep the Faith, she stated, “After seeing the reaction of my first audience, I knew I would be a singer. I knew I’d found my calling.”
Born in Lakeland, Florida, Evans relocated to Newark before her first birthday. Her mother, Helene, a young single parent, was only 18 years old and living in Dade City, Florida, with her twin sister, Hope, and their younger siblings. By the time Evans was born, her father, Richard Swain, was absent from her life, and she has never met him. Although he is white and contributed to Evans’ lighter complexion, she firmly identifies as a Black woman, a sentiment she expressed in her memoir: “I was raised 100 percent Black.”
Facing the challenges of single motherhood, Helene relied on her two older cousins, Mae and Bob Kennedy, to care for Evans. The Kennedys, a compassionate couple who fostered numerous children, provided Evans with a nurturing environment in their home in Newark’s Weequahic neighborhood. To simplify her family history, Evans often referred to them as her grandparents. They endeavored to shield her from the difficult realities of life in 1970s Newark, which was still reeling from the economic fallout of the 1967 riots. However, as Evans noted, “some of the characters in and out of the house were just as suspicious as the people my grandparents were trying to protect me from on the street.”
During visits to Florida, Evans developed a deep passion for music, often rifling through her mother’s extensive record collection that included artists like Donna Summer, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Anita Ward. Similarly, her Aunt Hope’s collection in Linden, New Jersey, exposed her to a diverse range of music, from Jimi Hendrix to Joni Mitchell, as well as the 1980s house music scene, featuring artists like Gwen Guthrie, CeCe Rogers, and Colonel Abrahams.
At the age of 14, Evans joined a touring gospel group called The Spiritual Uplifters, which performed in New York, Philadelphia, and Connecticut. The group’s organizer, Sister Wilson, had connections in the music industry, which led to Evans landing a minor role in Boogie Down Productions’ video for the 1989 single “You Must Learn.” This experience marked her first foray into the world of hip hop, setting the stage for her future success.
First Lady of Bad Boy Records
After graduating from high school in 1991, Faith Evans attended Fordham University in New York City on a full scholarship to study marketing. However, she dropped out after a year to focus on her music career. Shortly thereafter, she welcomed her daughter, Chyna, with music producer Kiyamma Griffin. The young family briefly relocated to Los Angeles, but following the dissolution of her relationship with Griffin, Evans returned to Newark as a single mother, moving back in with her parents, Mae and Bob Kennedy. She found consistent work as a session singer, earning approximately $2,000 per week singing background vocals for R&B artists, including Al B. Sure and Christopher Williams. This work garnered the attention of Sean “Puffy” Combs, who had founded Bad Boy Records in 1993. Through Combs, Evans co-wrote lyrics for Mary J. Blige and contributed to Usher’s self-titled debut album, released in 1994. That same year, she became the first female artist signed to Bad Boy Records.
Marriage to the Notorious B.I.G.
In the summer of 1994, Evans met Christopher Wallace, known as the Notorious B.I.G., during a photo shoot for Bad Boy Records. Remarkably, within just eight days of their initial meeting, the couple wed on August 4th in Rockland County, New York. Evans wore a sleeveless white dress, while Wallace opted for jeans and Timberlands. After their modest ceremony, the newlyweds stopped at a diner for a meal before returning to their respective lives—Wallace heading back to Brooklyn and Evans traveling to Jersey to pick up her daughter from preschool. Reflecting on this unconventional beginning, she wrote in her memoir, Keep the Faith, “Smoking weed on the way to our wedding and stopping for greasy french fries on the way home… it wasn’t the most traditional way to start a life together.”
At the time of their marriage, Evans was just 21, while Wallace was 22. Their union faced challenges from the outset, primarily due to their demanding careers. Evans was engrossed in the studio working on her debut album, while Wallace was on tour—ultimately leading to infidelity that would strain their relationship.
A year later, in August 1995, Evans released her debut solo album, Faith, which featured her songwriting contributions to every track except for a cover of Rose Royce’s “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore.” Produced by the Bad Boy team known as The Hitmen, the album yielded four singles, including gold-certified hits “You Used to Love Me” and “Soon as I Get Home.” Faith achieved significant commercial success, selling over one million copies in the U.S. alone and receiving platinum certification from the RIAA.
Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. Rivalry
In October 1995, while working in Los Angeles, Evans was invited to record with Tupac Shakur, who had recently signed to Death Row Records—a label engaged in a highly publicized feud with Bad Boy Records. Unbeknownst to Evans, Shakur believed that her husband had been involved in a 1994 attempt on his life. While Evans was aware of some tension between the two labels, she did not fully grasp the implications of her collaboration with Shakur until she arrived at the studio and noticed several Death Row representatives present.
Shakur was working on his album All Eyez on Me, embracing the gangsta rap lifestyle. Evans contributed to the track “Wonda Why They Call U Bitch,” but the song did not make it onto the final album due to label disputes. In a later recounting, Evans shared that after the recording session, Shakur had propositioned her in a surprising and unwelcome manner, to which she firmly declined, stating, “This is totally not how I operate.” Despite this, Shakur would later claim in interviews that he had been intimate with Evans, creating further friction between the two camps.
Death of the Notorious B.I.G.
Six months after Tupac’s murder in September 1996, the Notorious B.I.G. was shot and killed in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997. By this time, he and Evans had separated following several infidelities, including a year-long affair with fellow rapper Lil’ Kim. Both had moved on to new relationships. The public scrutiny surrounding their marriage left Evans feeling like she had “taken a beating in the court of public opinion.”
On the night of Wallace’s murder, Evans was in Los Angeles and had seen him earlier at a party. Just four months earlier, she had given birth to their son, CJ. In her memoir, she described the moment she learned of her husband’s death at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center: “The enormity of what happened started to slip over me and I began to shake uncontrollably. For some reason, I didn’t cry; I just panicked… My husband and the father of my newborn son was dead.”
Like the murder of Tupac Shakur, the killing of the Notorious B.I.G. remains unsolved.
Collaborating with P. Diddy on “I’ll Be Missing You”
In the aftermath of Wallace’s death, Sean Combs collaborated with Evans to produce a tribute song titled “I’ll Be Missing You,” which samples the melody of The Police’s “Every Breath You Take.” Released on May 27, 1997, the single reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and won a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group in 1998.
Keep the Faith Album
Evans’s second album, Keep the Faith, was released in September 1998 and achieved platinum certification the following year. The album produced four singles, including two Top Ten hits: “Love Like This,” which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Female R&B Performance, and “All Night Long.”
In the summer of 1998, Evans married record executive Todd Russaw, whom she met through Missy Elliott after her separation from Wallace. They welcomed their first son, Joshua, on June 8, 1998, and a second son, Ryder, on March 22, 2007. The couple announced their divorce in 2011, citing irreconcilable differences.
Faithfully and The First Lady Albums
Russaw served as executive producer and creative partner on Evans’s third album, Faithfully, released on November 6, 2001, which was certified gold by the RIAA the following year. This album marked her last collaboration with Bad Boy Records, as she departed the label in 2003. That same year, Evans appeared in the film The Fighting Temptations, where she portrayed a single mother and contributed a cover of Donna Summer’s “Heaven Knows” to the film’s soundtrack.
Following her departure from Bad Boy, Evans signed with Capitol Records and released her fourth album, The First Lady, on April 5, 2005. This album marked her return after a four-year hiatus and showcased her ability to produce a sophisticated blend of R&B and pop-soul. It peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, her highest chart position to date. By the end of that year, she released a holiday album, A Faithful Christmas, which would ultimately be her last for Capitol due to the label’s merger with Virgin Records in 2007, resulting in a significant reduction in its artist roster.
Civil Case Against the LAPD
In July 2005, a wrongful-death lawsuit filed against the Los Angeles Police Department by Evans and Wallace’s mother, Voletta, in 2002, collapsed after a federal judge declared a mistrial. The lawsuit alleged that the LAPD had intentionally withheld evidence linking rogue officers to the murder of the Notorious B.I.G. Although an amended lawsuit was refiled in 2007, it was dismissed by a federal judge in April 2010.
Something About Faith & New Music Label
After a five-year hiatus from recording following her Christmas album, Evans returned in 2010 by establishing her own record label, Prolific Music Group. Through this platform, she released her fifth studio album, Something About Faith, in October 2010, featuring collaborations with artists like Snoop Dogg, Raekwon, Redman, and Keyshia Cole. The album debuted at No. 15 on the Billboard 200 chart.
In 2012, Evans co-executive produced and appeared on the reality television series R&B Divas: Atlanta. Her sixth solo album, Incomparable, was released in November 2014, featuring the lead single “I Deserve It,” which included guest verses from Missy Elliott and her protégé, Sharaya J.
An Album with Notorious B.I.G. — and Lil’ Kim
In May 2017, Evans released The King and I, an album of duets with the Notorious B.I.G. The project features her vocals alongside previously unreleased verses from Wallace, complemented by contributions from notable artists such as Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, and surprisingly, Lil’ Kim—Evans’s former rival and the woman with whom Wallace had cheated. In an interview, Evans emphasized the importance of including Lil’ Kim on the track “Lovin You For Life,” expressing her belief that both women shared a deep love for Biggie and that their collaboration was long overdue.
New Marriage and Single
In July 2018, Evans married record producer and Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta star Stevie J., in Las Vegas. The two had known each other since their time working together at Bad Boy Records in the 1990s and planned to release their joint single, “A Minute,” later that month.