Notorious K.I.M. [PA] - Lil' Kim (CD 2000)

I don't exactly remember why I ordered Lil' Kim's HARDCORE (maybe it was to complete a BMG club member obligation....), but I had to put my headphones on the first time I played it in my apartment after letting it play loudly on the speakers for the first 40 seconds while mopping. From that moment on, I was shocked over the fact that there was a cd like this even made! Yeah there is porn everywhere and this is just another media type which makes it available.

However, I was hooked and bought into Queen Bee 15-minutes of fame! "Big Momma Thang" was my song and I got down with "Not Tonight", "We Don't Need It" and "Drugs". Don't really care when the boys begin to participate in the rappin'....Lil' Kim was my girl.....

So naturally I was one of the few that probably pre-ordered my cd of "The Notorious KIM" at Sam Goody before it arrived.

Overall the new album TNK (released in 2000) was a disappointment because Lil' Kim wasn't shocking anymore and therefore there was nothing new about lyrics here. If you remove the rapping, the music itself on the follow-up disc is definitely more accessible to a wider audience. (And this is probably due to the fact that the samples used on this disc range from artistis such as Suzanne Vega, Pat Benatar, and Lil' Louis' dancesmash "FrenchKiss".)

I didn't really hate TNK completely. I think that the only track that shows a different Queen Bee style that actually works was the first single "No Matter What They Say", which was probably released because it was the only song without a four letter nasty word in the title! This song gives Queen Bee some "mamacita" flavour and will get the whole barrio shakin' their booties along with all the brothers and sistas from the crib.

"What you hear is not a fake, it's the real Queen Bee..."

So continuing in the tradition of the raunchiness of Hardcore, the only strong female anthem to come out of Lil' Kim here (in her own way) is exhibited in the ghettofabulous number "Suck My D**k"

My favorite track on this album is the hilariously xxxx-rated rap "She Don't Love You"....sample lyric: "does she slurp it, jerk it, ride it, tell you how good it feels when you're inside it!" and the lovely chorus that willl get your mom and grandma clapping and singing along "i betcha she don't f**k you like you know i will f**k you"....classic.

"How Many Licks" was the next single but every other word was edited or bleeped out of the radio version. My sister was shocked when she heard the album version as I played it while I was cruising in my wheelz. (I can't imagine that the clean version of this album would make any sense as mostly every word rapped would be omitted!)

"Don't Mess With Me" tries to set Kim up in the role of Angela Basset in "Waiting to Exhale" and kinda ripping off MJB's lyrics from that same soundtrack. This song samples Pat Benatar.

A special feature in the album is the appearance of Lil' Shanice on "Aunt Dot." This song is funny and when the little kindergartner (yes, she is really like five or six years old) appears rapping it up like a lil' Queen Bee, it tears the room up. Other than that, every other person who is featured is kinda like a limp d**K as Lil' Kim would say.....MJB has no place on this record.

I do wonder if Kim can sing as she tries to melodically on "Right Now" and actually sounds decent. So it would be refereshing to hear Kim not rap a song and come out with a gospel album asking for repentance.
"Right Now" is probably the only song on this disc that isn't offensive and has only one bad word (sh*t) in its lyrics....does make good use of Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner."

I did enjoy "Custom Made" (where the cash at? where the stash at?), and the intro to "She Don't Love You" when Lil' Kim disses a girlfriend of a lowlife two-timer who gets caught with LK's number in his pocket....

"I like a pickle, that's juicy like a popsicle...come on' you gotta ride with me...da da, uh, doo doo..." is the mastery that Lil' Kim shows you when penning her own lyrics....and you can hear the rest of the smutt on "Off the Wall." and just about every song.

Overall, The Notorious Kim doesn't elevate Lil' Kim to any newer star status. Even the cover looks bad and not as funny as her spread sucking on a lolipop by the lit fireplace as in Hardcore. I'd say whatever aspirations that Lil' Kim had with this album, backfired. But that's okay. She's been getting paid by MAC cosmetics and getting free clothes from Donatella.

TNK has some laughs but her debut, HARDCORE, is a cool classic.