Revisiting That Time Kamala Harris Was in a Reality Show About Lil' Kim Going to Prison

The year was 2005: “Hollaback Girl” was one of the biggest songs of the year, my hair looked super emo, and Kamala Harris appeared in a reality series about the days leading up to Lil’ Kim’s one-year federal prison sentence.

Old footage from Lil’ Kim: Countdown to Lockdown is currently recirculating as people dig up old footage of the current Democratic primary candidates, some to delightful ends and some less so. The series followed Kim as she prepared to spend a year and one day in federal prison after lying to a jury about her knowledge of a shooting in 2001.

The first episode of the show, which aired on BET in 2006, featured a brief clip of Harris—who was then San Francisco District Attorney—offering insight into what she called the dangers of a “stop snitching” mentality and the glorification of “the gangster.” The aughts truly jumped the fuck out. (It’s worth noting that Harris’s name is misspelled as “Kamalla Harris.” And that, contrary current to Twitter speculation, Harris had nothing to do with Kim’s case.)

“It is much more serious than what is the code among friends around the street,” Harris said. “What I would like to see is, in the way that we’re handling cases like those of Lil’ Kim, we say as a community that we’re not going to glorify the gangster.”

No word yet on who Lil’ Kim supports in the Democratic primary!