will the real Barbie please stand up!!! (... and then sit all the way down... over it!!)

When I sense fuckery, it is hard for me to hold my tongue. Maybe it’s because I’m a Leo, maybe it’s because I’m of Trinidadian decent, maybe it’s because I’m from Brooklyn, maybe it’s all of the above. But there has been something brewing that has really been grinding my gears. Recently, I’ve been hearing (through blogs and twitter) that Lil Kim has started beefing with Nicki Minaj. At first I thought it was nonsense. Why would Lil Kim even feel the need to even start something with Nicki Minaj? Lil Kim’s status is Iconic. Not only as a female rapper, but as a rapper in general. She came into the game when it was oversaturated with men and made her claim of fame by spitting gritty (some might even say girl powering) rhymes that gave her female fans the push they needed to have that “fuck the world” attitude.

Speculations have been made whether or not she actually wrote any of those rhymes, but who cares? She spit those lyrics with only the grit and sass that she could possess.  Lil Kim, although surrounded by a sudden emerge of female MC’s, blazed her own lane, guarantying that the ones who came before nor the ones who would come after would even hold a candle to her shine.

Then, Nicki Minaj stepped on the scene. At first her name and her mixtapes were just whispers. But there was no denying that she was setting out to get the crown. In the beginning, Nicki accredited her style as a female MC to Lil Kim, Foxy Brown and Lauryn Hill, going so far as to say that they were her idols.  Then “beam me up scotty “ (mixtape) was released, she was signed to Young Money records and suddenly the little raptress that could, did. With the sudden notoriety, Nicki got on her best marketing and switched her style up. No longer was she the gritty round the way girl, with the dubee weaves, making youtube videos in the stairwells… she was now a Barbie.

Herein lies the dilemma...   

You might be saying to yourself, “wait a minute, isn’t Lil Kim the black Barbie”? When this Barbie wave first hit I asked the same question. I always wondered why Nicki choose to CLEARLY bite off of Lil Kim’s persona. Then I was curious as to why Lil Kim never felt the need to say anything about it. I came to the conclusion that Lil Kim was just to good to even entertain foolishness…

Fast forward a year later, Nicki is major with an enormous amount of Barbie minions fans. She is featured on several of the top 100 songs (not just secluded to hip hop) and is expected to drop her debut album sometime this year. Lil Kim is now making an effort to come back into the rap game. So the most obvious decision for Kim is to shoot at the person at the top. She must’ve forgot that she was already at the top and Nicki is still climbing. As preparation for a comeback, Lil Kim as been touring the country and throwing shade Nicki’s way at EVERY show.

This has to be the dumbest move on Lil’ Kim’s part. She insists that Nicki should pay homage, but as I can recall Nicki has already done so (in the beginning of her come up).  Does Kim expect her to thank her at the end of every show?? This is childish, Lil Kim is damn near 40 years old, beefing with someone who clearly learned every lesson Kim had to offer and flipped it for her benefit. If that isn’t paying homage, then I don’t know what is. 

Footage of Lil Kim performing at Sonar in Baltimore when she brought Baltimore Female MC Keys out to rap her "Nicki Minaj diss record" **special shout out to my home girl Devon who is the one INITIALLY  responsible for the footage** :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JywDsqvgzq4 

I believe that Lil Kim’s real issue isn’t with Nicki stealing her shine or image. If that were true, why wasn’t it addressed earlier, when it first started? I believe that her real issue is that she never thought that HER image would get Nicki as far as it has gotten her. She probably thought that Nicki’s shine would have come and gone like her predecessors. But Nicki’s star is rising, and whether you care for her music or not, it’s moving. So with Lil Kim’s decision to step back on the scene it only makes sense to go after Nicki with guns blazing… but, where I feel Lil Kim failed at was not putting it on wax and going state to state chirping bullshit about “homage and stolen image” instead of proving why she is the Queen Bee and putting it on wax. I need my “Hardcore”/ “Naked Truth" Lil Kim because she would’ve def shut  Nicki down properly (like “quiet” feat the game shut down Lil Cease and shut up Foxy Brown)!! But talking shit, just to talk it is petty, childish and earned Kim a grade F in Hip Hop Beef 101.

 *Editors note: I am not throwing shade at Lil Kim nor Nicki Minaj… I like them both (of course not equally. Kim holds a special place in my heart) But Cmon Son, let’s call a spade a spade. It’s way too convenient for Kim to now decide to throw shots while she is on a tour preparing for her come back. I also think that this is always the issue with female MCs (or females in general). They hate to see another chick shine. And yes, I am fully aware that what Kim is saying has some merit, but if she didn’t say it then, I don’t want to hear it now. In the words of Kid Fury, “if anybody should be mad it should be Barbie!”