Lil Kim Bio

Lil Kim Biography

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This Lil Kim biography contains information believed to be accurate as extracted from sources around the internet including Wikipedia. If you believe there are errors or omissions in this Lil Kim bio, please let us know so that we can correct any inaccuracies.

Kimberly Denise Jones (born July 11, 1975) , better known by her stage name Lil' Kim, is an American multi-platinum rapper and singer. Her 2005 album, The Naked Truth, was awarded the 5 mics award from The Source magazine. She is the only female rapper so far to have achieved this distinction. In 2002, she won a Grammy Award for her role in "Lady Marmalade".

Lil Kim: Biography

Lil Kim - Early years

At the age of 9, her parents separated , leaving her and her older brother Christopher at home with her father. While struggling through her personal life, Kim met Christopher "B.I.G." Wallace, who was a key figure in both her personal and artistic life, particularly when Wallace had gained popularity and influence through his relationship with Bad Boy Records.

In 1994, Wallace was instrumental in introducing and promoting the Brooklyn based group Junior M.A.F.I.A., which included Jones (aka "Big Momma" or "The Lieutenant") at the time. The group's first and only album was titled Conspiracy. The group released their first single, "Playas Anthem", which went on to top the rap charts. The album's second single, "I Need You Tonight" (featuring Aaliyah), was the only single released from the album that did not feature The Notorious B.I.G. The music video, directed by David Paolini, featured the members and Aaliyah holding a house party at Kim's house while she was away. The single reached #12 on the US Hot Rap Singles chart. The album's third single, "Get Money," was certified gold and made the top 20 on the Hot 100. The album debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200.

Lil Kim - 1994-1997: Hardcore

After a year with Junior M.A.F.I.A., Jones began a solo career by recording her debut album. Hard Core was released on November 12, 1996. The album debuted at #11 on the Billboard 200 and #2 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Rap Albums Chart's The album's lead single "No Time", a duet with Puff Daddy, reached the #1 spot for nine weeks on the Rap Charts and was certified platinum by the RIAA. The album later produced the single "Crush On You". A remix of the album's track "Not Tonight" saw Lil' Kim team up with Missy Elliott, Angie Martinez, Da Brat and Left Eye of TLC. The song was released as part of the soundtrack to the Martin Lawrence movie "Nothing To Lose" and went to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, and also earned Lil' Kim her first Grammy Award nomination. Not Tonight was certified platinum by the RIAA. In March 1997, her mentor and secret lover Notorious B.I.G. was shot and killed in Los Angeles.

Lil Kim - 1998-2000: The Notorious K.I.M.

From 1998 to 2000, Kim continued her road to stardom under the management of BIG's best friend, Damion "D-Roc" Butler's "Roc Management", toured and modeled for various fashion and pop culture companies including Candies, Versace, Iceberg, and Baby Phat. In 1999, she performed P. Diddy's "No Way Out" tour. In the same year, she launched her own label Queen Bee Entertainment and even though she hadn't had an album of her own released, she was seen on dozens of remixes and guest appearances on other artist's records. On June 27, 2000, Kim released her second album The Notorious K.I.M. The album marked a new image and revamped look for the rapper. Despite the limited success of its singles, the album surprisingly reached #4 on the Billboard 200, and #1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart selling 160,000 copies in its opening week. It was certified platinum by the RIAA, selling 1 million copies in the United States.

Lil Kim - 2001-2004: Moulin Rouge! and La Bella Mafia and Def Jam: Fight for NY

In 2001, Lil' Kim teamed up with Christina Aguilera, Pink, and Mưa to remake "Lady Marmalade", which was originally written about a bordello in New Orleans and performed by the group Labelle (which included diva Patti LaBelle) 25 years earlier. The song was recorded for the Moulin Rouge! film soundtrack, released in April 2001, and stayed #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks. The song also went to #1 in 50 countries around the world. This was a big accomplishment for female rap, as well as for Kim, who scored her first #1 Hot 100 hit and became the first female rapper in history to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Lady Marmalade also garnered Kim her first Grammy Award.

In 2003, Lil' Kim recorded a new entrance theme for then World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Women's Champion Trish Stratus entitled, "Time to Rock 'n Roll", which was used during broadcasts, until Stratus' retirement. The single was released on WWE Anthology, a compilation of entrance theme music to various Professional Wrestling superstars.

On March 4, 2003, Kim released her third critically acclaimed album, La Bella Mafia. Highly rated (4.5 mics) by music magazine The Source, La Bella Mafia spawned the hit "The Jump Off" featuring Mr. Cheeks, which climbed to number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single "Magic Stick", feat. 50 Cent, hit #2 on the Hot 100 without a video ever being shot.

La Bella Mafia debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200. Kim was nominated for five Source Awards and won two ("Female Hip-Hop Artist of the Year", and "Female Single of the Year"). This album also got two Grammy Award nominations: Best Female Rap Solo Performance ("Came Back For You") and Best Rap Collaboration ("Magic Stick"). She was also nominated for Best Pop Collaboration with singer Christina Aguilera for the song "Can't Hold Us Down", from Aguilera's album Stripped.

Lil' Kim also made an appearance on the multi-platform videogame Def Jam: Fight for NY. Kim provided voice-overs for her part in the storyline, where the player may fight an opponent to have Lil' Kim as his girlfriend. Kim requested to have orange hair, blue colored contacts and a navel ring. Her fighting style is martial art and her finishing move is the "Queen Bee Sting."

Lil Kim - 2005-2006: Criminal conviction and The Naked Truth

On March 17, 2005, Kim was found guilty of conspiracy and perjury for lying to a grand jury about her friends' involvement in a 2001 shooting outside the Hot 97 studios in Manhattan. She claimed not to have known that her manager (Damion "D-Roc" Butler) and another friend (Suif Jackson) were at the scene, despite video footage showing all three exiting the building. Both men have pleaded guilty to gun charges since. In July 2005, she was sentenced to a one-year-and-a-day in the Philadelphia Detention Center. She had requested to go to a camp center in Connecticut to be closer to her mother, but instead was ordered to report to the Philadelphia Detention Center. Her lawyer stated that, "A year and a day is actually less than a year sentence, because according to federal sentencing guidelines, if there's an extra day, time is credited to you". A parole bill was filed that reduced her sentence. Throughout her entire jail sentence, Kim's representatives declared that she was busy working; she wrote over 200 songs while in prison.

Despite her conviction, Kim released a fourth album, The Naked Truth, during her sentence on September 27, 2005. It earned her a 5 mic rating from The Source, making her the first and only female rapper to ever accomplish this feat (two 5 mic ratings). The album debuted at #6 on the Billboard 200 charts, giving Kim her Third Top 10 debut on the charts. The Naked Truth didn't sell as well as her previous works, selling less than 400,000 copies. All three of her previous albums have been certlatinum and Kim has said that her jail sentence left her with no time to promote the project. There have been many rumors about a re-release of The Naked Truth but to no avail.

The music video for The Naked Truth's first single, "Lighters Up" was number one on BET's 106 & Park for two weeks. "Lighters Up," was a Top Ten hit on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart. The single also reached #76 on the German Single Chart, #12 on the UK Top 75 and #4 on the Finland Single Chart. The second single, "Whoa" was released on February 17, 2006. It reached No. 22 on Airplay. On March 9, BET premiered the show Lil Kim: Countdown to Lockdown, which was filmed before Kim headed to jail. The show became the highest rated premiere in BET history, with 1.7 million viewers. A second season is currently in the works showcasing Lil' Kim in her post-prison lifestyle.

In May 2006, Debbie Harry released a Lil' Kim tribute song called "Dirty and Deep" in protest of her conviction. The song is available free from the Deborah Harry Home Page.

On June 6, 2006, Lil' Kim "The Dance Remixes" was released.

Lil Kim - 2006-present: Life after prison

On July 3, 2006, Kim was released from the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center. Hundreds of fans and supporters gathered around the prison as she made her release, holding a "Welcome Home" balloon and a dozen roses. After she waved to her fans and gave speeches to news reporters, Kim left in a 2007 Rolls Royce Phantom with a driver, telling the crowds, "Thank you, I love you all." According to her assistant, Kim was welcomed home by five different parties, including one hosted by VIBE magazine.

Things started looking up for Kim. However,in August of 2006, Jamaican Dancehall artist, Tanya Stephens, claimed in a suit filed in Manhattan federal court that Kim stole the lyrics from one of her songs, Mi And Mi God after flying her [Stephens] to New York, asking her to sing on one of her albums and belting out by heart the very song she pilfered to show what a big fan she was of Stephens, according to the suit. Stephens and her representatives from the Royalty Network were shocked when they first listened to Lil' Kim's late-2005 album, The Naked Truth. The lyrics of Kim's track Durty are said to match almost word for word with Stephens' Mi and Mi God recorded in Jamaica and released in 1997, on Stephens' album, Too Hype. It was never publicized what the outcome of the suit was.

Lil' Kim gave her first post-prison performance at VH1: Hip-Hop Honors 2006. Lil' Kim paid tribute to veteran rapper MC Lyte. Kim performed, "Lyte As A Rock" for Lyte's tribute. Lil' Kim stated "MC Lyte has paved the way for many rappers including myself, and I was honored to show respect for an amazing woman."

Kim was a judge on the reality show Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll on the The CW Television Network.

In the spring of 2007, Kim was heard on the remix to the popular Diddy song "Last Night" feat. Keyshia Cole. When rumors surfaced about the remix, many believed Kim wouldn't end up on the song,and after the first remix surfaced many wrote her her appearance off as another untrue rumor. They were proved wrong days later when a second remix of the song surfaced, featuring Kim & Busta Rhymes. This remix is the first time Kim & Diddy have worked together in many years, after a falling out.

Kim also was featured on "Let it Go" with Keyshia Cole and Missy Elliott. It was nominated in the 'Best Rap/Sung Collaboration' category at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards held February 2008. It lost however to Rihanna's song "Umbrella".

Hot 97's Annual Summer Jam took place in June 2007 at New Jersey's Giants Stadium, and Diddy was one of the acts performing. He shocked the fans by escalating into his 1997 mega hit, "It's All About the Benjamins" - and on The Lox's quotable portion of the song, instead of asking the crowd to rap it as he had done in the past, Diddy instead brought out his past notorious rivals: The Lox. By this time, the music stopped, and Diddy breathlessly announced, "Ladies and gentlemen. She's been gone for a while but say 'what's up' to the queen." And Lil' Kim, wearing a revealing red chiffon kimono shirt, performed her verse to "Benjamins" before jumping into her song, "Lighters Up" off her 2005 album The Naked Truth. Backstage after the show, Diddy commented exclusively to VIBE. "That was planned," he said, about the surprise performance with Lil Kim and The Lox. "We've been great for a long time, and a lot of people hear about the rumors, but we've been great. We put it together and we wanted to show the world we could."

Kim made a surprise performance with Diddy and Keyshia Cole for a remix to the "Last Night" at the 2007 BET Awards. Both Kim and Diddy have stated they may be working together again in the future. Rumors have surfaced that Bad Boy Records is attempting to sign Kim to a new recording contract, but there has been no confirmation.

Recently, Lil Kim has remixed a number of songs to get reacquainted with the music scene. Some of these remixes include Gimme More with Britney Spears, Freaky Gurl with Gucci Mane and Ludacris, No One with Alicia Keys, and I Get Money with 50 Cent.

She also took a huge step recently, ending her feud with 50 Cent and recording "Magic Stick Part 2 (Wanna Lick)" with him. It is the first single from the new G-Unit album.

On December 10, 2007, Lil' Kim made an appearance on MTV's "Mixtape Monday", along with Mr. Cee, to formally announce the upcoming release of her first official mixtape entitled Ms. G.O.A.T. (Miss Greatest of All Time). According to Lil' Kim, the mixtape serves not only as an opportunity to keep her fans satisfied with new music in between albums, but it is also an homage to past female rappers. On the mixtape, Lil' Kim remakes classic songs, with her own Queen Bee twist, such as Lauryn Hill's "Lost Ones", Lady of Rage's Afro Puffs, MC Lyte's "Cha Cha Cha", just to name a few. The mixtape also includes an official remix to Britney Spears' Gimme More. Additionally, the mixtape includes a song called "Chillin' Tonight," which has had little radio success, but is said to be on Lil' Kim's untitled fifth solo album. The mixtape was released on December 27, 2007 to the internet but is now officially being released physically on May 27th! It is available for pre-order on amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, hmv.com as well as other sites. It is unknown whether it is the original mixtape with the hosts or whether it is a non-host version for the physical release since the covers on amazon say have 'lil' kim' on the front cover but no 'hosted by' text like on the original internet release cover

Lil Kim also discussed her reunion with former manager, Lance "Un" Rivera. She also announced that Trackmasters are producing her new album, and Mister Cee is helping put out her new mixtape. According to MTV, she says her time on Atlantic Records is over, and that she'll release her next album on her own Queen Bee Records in conjunction with the Flavor Unit (the Unit are also sharing co-managing duties with Un). Imperial Records will distribute the project.

In February 2008, "The Pussycat Dolls Presents: Girlicious" show began to air.

Recently a new Lil' Kim song leaked called "Respirator". In the song Kim uses Auto-Tune for the majority of the song. It is not known if it will be included on her upcoming album.

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