Next to the tortured soul we know as Michael Jackson, Lil’ Kim is the second-most tragic, plastic surgery-botched, delusional and sad story in the music industry.
The silver-tongued, no-holds barred sex fiend most of us fell in love with from the Hardcore album is gone. Today, she still tries to push that rough sex and thug image, but she looks ridiculous now because frankly, Kim is old, out of touch and flat-out fake. You look at Kim today and all you see is a walking, talking blow-up doll.
In case you haven’t seen all the work she has done, just check out the cover of The Naked Truth. Kim looks like a barely black Barbie – her nose has been whittled down, her skin has been whitened, and her lips have that nice “duck lip” effect because she had them pumped full of god knows what. But if you are repulsed by her plastic surgery or think she’s delusional for still clinging so desperately to the Notorious B.I.G., you’re only a “hater” to Kim.
On the “hater” diss track, she so eloquently states: “Shut Up Bitch!/Everybody talkin’, all these haters hawkin’/Paparazzi stalkin’ takin’ pictures while I’m walkin’/Damn can’t a bitch breathe/Gimmie room please/I’m in the paper e’ry day if I piss or sneeze/I used to ride in a rental Lebaron.” Oh boy, first of all, I’m shocked that a bodily function like sneezing can still occur in the shredded-up nose of hers, and secondly she’s complaining about paparazzi and “haters,” but if no one paid attention to her, she’d be nowhere and wouldn’t be able to write about the same thing for three albums in a row.
It’s been said before, but Kim truly needs to stop clinging to the Notorious B.I.G. for her street cred and for her lyrics. I won’t even bother to count the number of times she jacks Biggie’s old rhymes and calls out his name. Remember Kim was not Biggie’s wife; she was his artist and his mistress. It’s understandable to represent someone who meant a lot to you, and her pain sounded heartfelt and genuine on Notorious K.I.M.’s “Hold On,” but Kim reaps the man’s death for her profit and it just feels disingenuous, much like this album. And Biggie isn’t the only artist she bites. On the track “Quiet,” Kim bites Eminem’s flow and the production sounds similar to his gloomy sound.
A bright spot on the album is the reggae-tinged “Lighters Up,” in which Kim, in a Jamaican accent as fake as the breasts on her chest, shouts out to cities all over and commanding them to put their lighters up. On a fun-loving track like this, it’s easy to look past Kim’s obvious insecurities and hypocrisies and just enjoy the beat by Scott Storch of “Lean Back” fame, and bounce.
Elsewhere on the album, Kim runs the same old garbage almost every female rapper is stuck on: clothes, magazine covers, namedropping, thugs and rough sex. This was cool back when Kim first came out because it was new to hear a woman talk the way she talked and act the way she acted, but the act has just gotten old. And sadly, each successive album has been worse than the previous. The truth about The Naked Truth is Kim is the emperor with no clothes. She thinks she’s doing big things and running the rap game, but really, everyone is just laughing and feeling sorry for her.
