I’m going to need a sane adult who is a friend of Lil’ Kim’s to kindly take her by the hand and lead her out of the recording booth before she completely destroys her Rap Legend status.
Late Wednesday afternoon, Lil’ Kim released her second song in the last two days aimed at Nicki Minaj. “Identity Theft” is the follow up to her earlier attempt at a remix of the “Flawless” remix where she also slammed Nicki.
To make sure we are all absolutely clear on who she is attacking, Lil’ Kim included this painfully unsubtle artwork.
The song itself is…not good. Lil’ Kim sounds like she took an Ambien twenty minutes before she start rapping. It’s understandable that she would be tired, considering she had a baby a hot minute ago and probably isn’t getting much sleep. Which really is all the more reason for her to just tend to her own business instead of coming for Nicki Minaj every time the sun rises.
However, the real issue isn’t so much that the song is bad. (Although, again, the song is terrible.) Frankly, even if Lil’ Kim had dropped a jam, I think people would still be side-eying her. The point is that Lil’ Kim needs to give it a damn rest with the Nicki Minaj bashing. It’s really starting to look pathetic when you continually attack the hottest player in the game you’re not even currently playing.
The genesis of Lil’ Kim’s ire seems to be that she feels Nicki has jacked her style. Now, to be fair to Lil’ Kim, Nicki Minaj has clearly been influenced by her. Nicki herself referred to Lil’ Kim as a “major influence” on her career. And I’m sure it can be frustrating to see parts of your style successfully adopted by others, but that’s kind of what happens when you’re a trailblazer. It comes with the territory. What do you think would have happened if Michael Jackson had called out every artist who ever jacked his sound, style or dance moves? Or James Brown? Damn, Little Richard all but invented rock and roll but you don’t see him talking shit about everybody, do you?
Aside from probably just being real petty, Lil’ Kim seems to think that we don’t see her influence over Nicki Minaj or other female rappers. Of course we see it, but we’re not fixated on it. Our sole reference point for Nicki Minaj isn’t that she was inspired by Lil Kim and she needs to get over that.
Frankly, I’m embarrassed for her. This certainly isn’t going to revitalize her career in any serious way and it’s making her look pathetic and obsessive.
And before anyone has a chance to go there, let’s not delve into that tired “female rappers can’t be taken seriously because they’re always fighting” trope. Male rappers have public beef with each other all the time and no one ever questions their legitimacy. Lil’ Kim is going after someone who, at the moment, she has no business coming for. People say the same thing about male rappers who unnecessarily try to start drama with someone out of their league.
I hope Lil’ Kim is at least happy with what she’s doing because I doubt she’s getting the response she was hoping for. Meanwhile, Nicki spent the day modeling couture for her Instagram followers. You decide who came out on top.
Image via Getty.
