Lil’ Kim – Interview [2000]

lil’ kim exposed

Would you know a superstar if you met one? It wasn’t long ago that Kimberly Denise Jones was walking the tough streets of Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood. It was here that she happened upon Christopher Wallace.

A friend mentioned to the now Notorious B.I.G. that Kim knew how to rap. Biggie remarked that “She’s too cute to know how to rap.” He took his increasing record industry clout and put it into a powerhouse collective of rappers called Junior M.A.F.I.A. (Junior Masters At Finding Intelligent Attitudes). “Biggie thought I was just going to be this little female in the back, this girl he’d put in the group because he loved me,” Kim once said. “But when we came out, everyone loved our songs “Get Money” and “Player’s Anthem”, and we blew up.” Junior M.A.F.I.A. turned out to only be a stepping stone for the artist now known to the world as Lil Kim. In 1996, Kim took the world by storm with her solo release, Hard Core. Kim’s life seemed to be storybook perfect until March 9th when Biggie was shot to death while leaving an industry event at the Petersen Automotive Museum in the Mid-Wilshire district of Los Angeles. Biggie’s death tore Kim apart. “After he died, honestly, I wanted to remain a baby for a while,” said Kim. “He was everything to me. My father, brother, and mentor. He would tell me when to go to sleep, when to wake up. It was crazy.”

“Big had a plan for me,” she added. So Kim couldn’t take it sitting down. After sorting out her life and the trauma, Kim went to work on her second solo release, The Notorious KIM. “I know it’s been a long time since my last album, but Big’s death has affected me in more ways than one,” writes Kim in her album notes as a message to her fans. And along with that she says with an honesty you can truly believe, “I think God has a plan for me.”

I was lucky enough to have a chance to talk to the one and only Lil Kim. As much as she’s a star, she’s also a curiosity. You don’t know what to expect when you speak with her. You have to go in with no expectations, only to listen and learn. The first thing I noticed as her voice rang out is how gentle and kind she seemed. How could such an outrageous figure be so down to earth? Don’t ask; just understand.

Transcript:

How are you?

I’m fine. How about you?

I’m great. I know you are really busy.

I know, but that is good.

I heard you on Howard Stern a few weeks back.

Yeah, that was crazy.

It sounded like you were having a good time.

It was great. He seems so crazy but he is really cool.

I think you two have something in common then because I suspect most people think you are just off the wall crazy all the time.

(laughs) Yeah, I know.

I was on your site ( lilkim.com ) and saw that tons of fans were leaving questions there, so I thought where better to get some questions than from real fans.

Cool.

I noticed there was a lot of fans on there sending much love against a lot of the bad publicity you seem to get.

Awww. I love that.

Does it really get to you when you see all that negative stuff out there about you?

Yeah. It really does hurt me with all these people hating me, but then again you have to expect that in the world when you are so public. But it does hurt.

Is it weird that with you people either seem to love you or hate you? I mean, most artists have listeners who can just be interested in them casually, but with you it’s love or hate.

Yes. It’s cool. I love those who love me. And those who don’t love me, I love ya’ll too. (laughs)

Does it ever get overwhelming to be adored by millions of people?

Yes. I’m like, ‘For little old me?’ (laughs) I would have never thought this would happen in a million years. It’s a dream come true.

The thing that has to be weird is that you have so many people looking up to you and they’re not much younger or are the same age as you.

Isn’t that crazy? I like it. It’s cool.

Is it a lot to live up to or do you just go on because they like you for who you really are?

Actually it’s a lot to live up to. You always have to watch what you say and do because you don’t want your fans to not like you anymore. That is a nightmare to any artist. You want people to love you, but to still love you for what they like about you from the beginning. One thing I won’t do is hurt my fans’ feelings. Not at all.

I think people are under the misconception that in order for Lil Kim to sign them, they have to be Lil Kim.

Yeah. You are right with that. But like with Nelly, I feel my album is different too. I don’t think I can be compared to anyone else anymore.

Especially because you don’t go around kissing the asses of everyone. You don’t try to be politically correct and I think people really appreciate your honesty.

I know, right?

It really does get annoying when people are trying to be nice to everyone and not offend anyone.

I feel you. You can’t always appeal to everyone.

I think that comes back to your love/hate thing.

Because I do what I want to do. I’m not trying to play anyone.

The way I figure it, the people that hate are usually just jealous.

(we both begin to laugh) You know what I’m saying? (laughs) But I think you are right about Nelly. He has a great and different sound and that is what separates him from the rest. And that is what you need.

It’s really important now because you get some suits at the major labels going, ‘Well, pop is really hot and so is hip-hop. We need more groups!’

Right. They sign everybody.

I know from hearing from fans and reading posts that many aspire to be like you or other artists. You have a label. How does that work for finding new talent?

One thing I’m struggling with right now is that Queen Bee is a fairly small label right now and we don’t have the money to do what I want to do. We are distributed through another label right now, but once Notorious KIM reaches its goal and we are able to circulate a little more, I think I can sign more artists. Right now we are looking for artists. We listen to tapes every day, but we are looking for a certain sound to get Queen Bee’s stamp of approval. It has to have a certain sound.

It seems that a lot of people think the best thing they can do is copy someone’s sound, but then they’ll never stick out.

I know. I want something different. I don’t want people coming to me sounding like Jay-Z or Cash Money. I don’t want them coming and acting like Usher or R. Kelly. I want someone to give me those feelings, but in a different way. Those are great artists, but they all have their own thing.

That is what makes someone a great artist. They strike you deep, but they do it their own way.

Right!

That is what I got when I first heard Nelly.

I like him. That is a really tight record.

They’re like, ‘Man, we need some Backstreet Boys on our label.’

(laughs) Yep, and not everyone can have it.

I have a few questions about your album and style. When you are writing, do you write around a central theme or idea or is it spontaneous?

It’s a little of both actually. I have some songs that were concepts I had in my mind and some were spontaneous.

When you head into the studio, do you have the beats or do you go with it?

What usually happens is that people will send me music and I’ll pick songs and go in the studio and work on that. Then when I leave, I usually have more new music. It’s great because most of the time I have music to vibe to. Sometimes I can be sitting and write a rap without music, but I really like to write with music.

I know that we got some emails from younger fans who wonder if you may make an album that is cleaner? But I wonder since you’ve been embraced by artists from all forms of music if you might experiment with other types of music for yourself?

I think I experimented on this album. I have a lot of versatility and creativity on this album. And regarding cleaning it up, I don’t feel the need to clean up my music, just to be even more different. I like people to wonder where I’m going to go next.

I mean, there is a clean version of the album, so kids can buy that. I guess parents might not realize it.

Yeah, I know. I see more parents letting their kids buy this album more than the last album.

What is the vibe, like when you have guests come in and work on your tracks?

It’s the best, especially when it’s artists I want to work with. We always agree with each other. It’s so much fun.

Do you have any guest appearances coming up on other albums?

Yeah. Actually I’m going to be on a new Phil Collins album where people are redoing his songs. I did “In The Air Tonight”. I have some things I’m working on now, but we aren’t sure.

Is it fun doing that because you get to step out of yourself?

Uh-huh. That is where I have the most fun. It’s really fun because you get to be even more experimental.

Like the Tommy Lee thing?

Yeah. That gave me the chance to show my skills on another level.

It’s just something people don’t expect.

And I’m all about doing stuff people don’t expect.

Do you have film plans?

Hopefully in the beginning of 2001 I want to really start into my career in Hollywood, but I will still do music, but hopefully around that time I will be able to take a few moments out and go and do a movie. Right now I don’t have the time.

A lot of people see you as multitalented. Do you want to branch off even more?

I feel like I have skills, especially in writing R&B and hip-hop. I’d love to get more into the writing and producing side. That is definitely something I want to get more into. I want to get more into the movie business. I’d love to have my own film company where I can make my own movies.

Right, instead of the always predictable films we see coming out today.

I know. I do like being part of someone else’s movies, but you are restricted to just this one character. I would like to show people how we write.

I think it’d be awesome to see you in there shaking it up.

I know.

I got a question from a reader that was from left field, but I thought it was great. It was, ‘If you were queen for the day, or president, what would be your first duty?’

Wow. What would be my first act? That is hard because I want to say to get the world together and tell them we need to fight back, that we need to fight the government or get them to join us in order to fight world hunger and homeless people and taxes. I would try to get the world together. If I was president for the day and got the world to love me and show them I love them and would die for them, I could stay president for the rest of this goddamn century. (laughs) You know? I love my people. I think we are here because God wanted us here. I would really want to get people spiritual once again and to just believe in God. He is all around us and loves us, so my first duties would be to get the world spiritual and to come together.

So, off that question, are you worried about the future president, either Gore or Bush?

Oh my God, yes.

You and me both.

But you know what? As long as I keep God first, I don’t even worry. I don’t even care.

I had another deep question: ‘Who do you admire most?’ and ‘What should they look for in a role model?’

I basically have so many role models that I’ve looked up to. I looked up to Michael Jackson, Biggie, Mary J. Blige, Madonna, Prince, and so many people. Oprah, Whitney, Sade, and so many others. I love Marilyn Monroe and Denzel Washington. It goes on and on.

What qualities do you think a person needs to be a role model or is it different for everyone?

I really believe it’s different for everyone. Every person doesn’t have the same heart. For me, I’d look at a person’s heart and see that they care about certain things, because you can’t have a role model that doesn’t have a good heart or isn’t a good person. Why would you want to be like them then?

With all that’s been said about Lil Kim, both good and bad, you know that even though she may be small in stature, she’s huge in the heart department.

+ charlie craine