Big Pun’s widow, Liza Rios, has filed a lawsuit against Fat Joe, asking for more than a million dollars, according to TMZ.
In the lawsuit, Rios says she and Fat Joe had a deal to split money made by Big Pun following the rapper’s passing in 2000. Despite the deal, Rios says she hasn’t received any money since 2005.
This is not the first time Rios has publicly spoken about what she feels is owed to her family. In 2008, Rios said “I don’t want Joe to take care of me, I just want what’s due to Pun.”
In 2009, Rios spoke with HipHopDX about how she felt the money was being mishandled.
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“I don’t know who gets the money,” Rios said at the time. “I know the kids don’t get anything. Pun doesn’t get paid. And had he been alive, it would not have been happening this way. But, people took advantage of the situation.”
At the time, she also said she didn’t put all the blame on Joe.
“I don’t put 100 percent blame on Joe,” she said. “I put a lot of blame on Pun. He should’ve been smarter. He should’ve been wise with the business. And he wasn’t. He swore that these people were gonna take care of me, that I was T.S., Terror Squad. Before he passed, I didn’t believe him. I stressed him like, ‘Make sure your affairs are in order…’ I didn’t wanna be bothered with him passing on and everybody now is stressing over the money. I just wanted to be left alone with my kids.”
Big Pun released his debut album, Capital Punishment, via Loud Records in 1998. Two years later, in April 2000, Yeeeah Baby, Pun’s second and final official album was released.
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In 2001, Endangered Species, a posthumous Pun compilation project was released by Loud Records, an effort that featured Ashanti, Noreaga and Fat Joe.
Big Pun passed in February 2000. He had an enlarged heart and weighed almost 700 pounds at the time of his death, according to MTV. He was 28.
