I’M JUST SAYIN’:
I’m rollin with Team Kim all day! Let me tell you why…I feel like too many times we –hip-hop and the powers that be—have failed her. Lil’ Kim didn’t come into the game another cute female MC—Lil’ Kim came into the game and completely shut it down. She CHANGED the culture…image…content…of female rap. She made history within the genre. Right before she came we was either gangsta bitches or mother earths, then Lil’ Kim arrived and pow female hip-hop was sexy…for some, too sexy.
Ok sexy aside, nothing quite new, cause female rappers with sex appeal would randomly appear on R&B tracks and say what they had to say …no, this one was spittin with the illest artists in our history…from BIG and Mobb Deep to Too Short. Her flow and delivery – no gimmick or alter ego –was just as hard as theirs. In some cases better. She wasn’t just a passing trend. Many that immediately followed tried to emulate but it was never quite a match.
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Ok so celebrity aside, cause hip-hop is all about keepin it real, reppin ya set, riding for ya n*****, being loyal and talking it how you live it, right? That code of honor goes for both men and women, right? From day one, Lil Kim affirmed her love for her Junior Mafia clique and B.I.G. She rapped about getting her ***** licked, but she held them dudes down every chance she got…that was just as much a part of who she was as everything else.
“Under pressure, I lie for ya, die for ya, rougar by the thigh for ya, right hand high for ya”.
Was she lying? Did she not? Was that not loyalty? Before it became a trend did she not go away to prison? How more real can she get?! Did she not rap it the way she was willing to live it? I don’t know who was there for her when that went down…earlier on it always appeared that she was a part of a team. Were they there for her then?
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Here’s what I do know, its too many power players and major artists that were there when she did reign. Its too many of those that proclaim B.I.G. Quite a few that still claim Brooklyn. It’s too many artists that swear by a similar code of ethics. She has paid more than enough dues in this game. I don’t care if albums flop or her image misses a beat.
For these newer artists – I mean so new that they literally just got here – to make certain comments and get away with it, it is disrespectful, smellin’ themselves…forgive them for they know not what they do. Lil Kim has a right to express some disappointment. It’s not about hate. Her identity in this game has been chipped away enough! Once again, where is her team? She shouldn’t have to do the chastising on her own, should she? But
