Lil’ Kim retaliates with jail yard confessional

Marcella Veneziale

Lil’ Kim, self-proclaimed Queen Bee of the rap world, anticipates and takes down her critics in The Naked Truth, her fourth and arguably best album to date. Kanye West, Scott Storch, Hot Runner, and 7 Aurelius were recruited to help produce and to collaborate. After having received intense public scrutiny for her jail sentence, Kim cleaned up her image, even working with and befriending Marc Jacobs, who adopted her as a muse.

No one is exempt from her retaliatory album, from the New York police to her former crew. In “Shut Up, B*tch!,” featuring Katt “Money Mike” Williams, we are reminded that Kim is “not pawn, not rook, not knight, queen.” She takes this very public opportunity to tell us what she thinks of the haters, from Star Jones (“It must feel good to pay less”), to the gossip-mongers (“Everybody talking, all these haters hawking, all these paparazzi stalking”), to the justice system (“I heard she’s going to jail, I heard she’s out on bail”).

The rhymes confess the details of her trial. After a confrontation with her rival, Foxy Brown, shots were fired outside the New York headquarters of the Hot 97 radio station. Kimberly Jones, as she was known to the jury, was convicted of perjury and sentenced to a year in prison, three years of probation, and fined $50,000. The facts of the case, according to the songstress in “

Slippin’,” read as a testament to her resilience: “A street grudge put me in front of the judge / but I stood there like what, the bee don’t budge.” Kim also shows that she has learned that defending members of her former crew involved in the shooting, who probably did not deserve it, was a mistake. Now she is more than a little angry: “They kicked me when I was down and stuck in a crisis / kept it all in and now I’m about to erupt.”

That was 2001, and now, despite the lingering harsh criticism that she has faced, she maintains that she loves the life she’s lived in “All Good,” whose rhythms pay homage to her deceased mentor, Notorious B.I.G. And although she’s currently serving her sentence, she brushes the jail time off with an air of bravado: “I can do that time on my head.”

Ultimately, all the posturing and bragging doesn’t detract from the fact that Kim is the true girl from the block—J. Lo has nothing on her. She consistently reminds us where she comes from in the single “Lighters Up:” “Better have a pass when you cross that bridge, / welcome to Brooklyn.” We are also reminded of who helped the young Queen Bee when she first started at the tender age of 16: “Big comes first and the queen comes after.”

The album is her most impressive to date, and Kim’s venomous lyrics match exceedingly well to the mix of beats, from heavy dance-hall in “Whoa Fka My N*ggas,” to dirty South rap in a Twista collaboration.

While looking back at what she has been through, she gives us the heads up that although she might be in lock-up, nothing will keep the queen down. As “Shut Up, B*tch” succinctly puts it, “She’s back!”