Detailed Biography

Kimberly Denise Jones , better known by her stage name Lil' Kim, is an American rapper and singer who was part of the group Junior M.A.F.I.A.

Jones was born and raised in Brooklyn and lived much of her adolescent life on the streets after being expelled from home. From the influence of fellow rapper The Notorious B.I.G., she began her music career in 1995 with the group Junior M.A.F.I.A., whose debut album Conspiracy generated three hit singles. In late 1996, her solo debut album Hard Core was released. Hard Core was certified double platinum and spawned chart-topping hits "No Time" and "Crush on You". Her following albums, The Notorious K.I.M. and La Bella Mafia , were also largely successful.

In 2005, Lil' Kim served a yearlong prison sentence for lying to a jury about her friends' involvement in a shooting four years earlier. During her incarceration, her fourth album The Naked Truth was released to poor sales and modestly charting singles. Lil' Kim returned to the public spotlight in 2009 with an appearance on Dancing with the Stars.

Early life

Lil' Kim was born Kimberly Denise Jones on July 11, 1975 , in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of the New York City borough Brooklyn. At the age of 9, her parents separated, and her father raised her until he expelled her from home. With her life at home struggling, she then decided to move in with friends. While struggling through her personal life, Kim met rapper Notorious B.I.G., 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.

Music career

Junior M.A.F.I.A.

In 1994, B.I.G. was instrumental in introducing and promoting the Brooklyn based group, Junior M.A.F.I.A., which included Lil' Kim. The group's first and only album was titled Conspiracy. Three hit singles came from Conspiracy: "Player's Anthem" , "I Need You Tonight" , and "Get Money" . The Recording Industry Association of America certified Conspiracy Gold on December 6, 1995, marking sales of 500,000 units. "Player's Anthem" was Gold, and "Get Money" went Platinum .

Hard Core

After a year with Junior M.A.F.I.A., Jones began a solo career by making guest performances on R&B albums and recording her debut album, Hard Core, which was released in November 1996. The album peaked at #11 on the Billboard 200 and #3 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Hard Core was RIAA-certified double platinum on March 14, 2001 after having been certified Gold on January 6, 1997 and Platinum on June 3, 1997. The album's lead single "No Time", a duet with Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs , reached the top spot of the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks chart and was certified Gold by the RIAA. The following single, "Crush on You", reached #6 on the Hot 100 and #2 on the rap chart. 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 part of the soundtrack to the Martin Lawrence movie Nothing To Lose, nominated for a Grammy Award, and certified Platinum. In one stockholders' meeting of Warner Bros. Records, activist C. Delores Tucker criticized the label "for producing this filth," referring to perceived graphic sexual content in Kim's lyrics.

The Notorious K.I.M.

From 1998 to 2000, Kim continued her road to stardom under the management of B.I.G.'s best friend, Damion "D-Roc" Butler's "Roc Management", touring and modeling for various fashion and pop culture companies including Candies, Versace, Iceberg, and Baby Phat. In 1998, she performed in 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 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. It was on this LP that the well-known hip-hop feud between Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown blossmed.

In 2001, Lil' Kim teamed up with Christina Aguilera, Pink, and Mýa to remake "Lady Marmalade", which was originally written about a bordello in New Orleans and performed by the group 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.

La Bella Mafia

In 2003, Lil' Kim recorded a new entrance theme for then World Wrestling Entertainment 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 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 . This album also got two Grammy Award nominations: Best Female Rap Solo Performance and Best Rap Collaboration . 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.

Greg Thomas, an English professor at Syracuse University, began teaching "Hip-Hop Eshu: Queen B@#$H Lyricism 101". Kim herself was a guest speaker at the school. Professor Thomas considered Kim's lyrics "the art with the most profound sexual politics I've ever seen anywhere." David Horowitz criticized the course as "academic degeneracy and decline". 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.

The Naked Truth

Kim released a fourth album, The Naked Truth, on September 27, 2005, while serving a federal prison sentence . It earned her a 5 mic rating from The Source, making her the only female rapper to ever receive a 5 mic rating. 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. 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 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. 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.

Dancing With The Stars and the upcoming album

Lil' Kim appeared on the eighth season reality show Dancing with the Stars, which began airing on March 9, 2009. She was paired with professional dancer Derek Hough until the dance couple was eliminated on May 5, 2009, putting her at fifth place from all thirteen contestants that season.

On March 10, 2009, the song "Girls" by the Korean singer, Se7en featuring Lil' Kim was released through digital stores for his U.S. debut single. Kim appeared in the music video that was released on the same day. "Girls" was produced by Darkchild.

Kim is currently working on her fifth solo studio album. The album is still untitled and expected for a 2010 release. Kim began recording the album with the Trackmasters, but due to artistic differences, Kim broke her deal with Poke & Tone and sought out other producers to help take her album in a different direction. One of the songs Kim recorded with the Trackmasters, "Download" , was released as a single/video in May 2009 but it's unknown as to whether or not the track will be featured on her upcoming album. The track samples the song "Computer Love".

Prison sentence and release

On March 17, 2005, Kim was convicted of three counts of conspiracy and one count of perjury for lying to a Federal grand jury about her friends' involvement in a 2001 shooting outside the Hot 97 studios in Manhattan.

During the trial of her co-manager, Damion "D-Roc" Butler, and her bodyguard, Suif "Gutta" Jackson, a former member of the hip-hop group Junior M.A.F.I.A, she testified not to have known they were at the scene. However, video footage from a security camera placed all three at the scene, exiting the building. This directly contravened testimony before the grand jury. Butler and Jackson have since pled guilty to gun charges. Jackson was sentenced, in U.S. District Court, to twelve years in federal prison as part of plea bargain in which he admitted to firing at least twenty rounds during the incident. The length of the sentence was said to have been influenced by his previous gun-related convictions.

In July 2005, Kim was sentenced to a one-year-and-a-day, thirty days home detention upon release from custody and three years of probation. She requested to serve her time at prison camp in Connecticut in order to be close to her mother, however, she was ordered to report to the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia instead where she served the entirety of her sentence. Regarding her sentence, an attorney for Kim stated, "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. She was released on July 3rd, 2006, after serving approximately 10 months.

Dancing with the Stars performances

Kim and Derek Hough were partnered on season 8 of Dancing with the Stars. Their first performance took place on March 9, 2009. During Week 1, she performed a Cha-Cha-Cha to the song "Nasty", which earned praise from the judges. Week 2, she and Hough performed a Quickstep to the Marilyn Monroe staple "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend." In week 3, they performed a Samba to "Remedio P'al Corazon", once again receiving praise, and prompting judge Len Goodman to call her "bionic booty." During week 4, they performed the Argentine Tango, garnering them the first 10 score of the season from Bruno Tonioli, despite mild criticism from Len Goodman regarding a lack of sensuality.

In week 5, Kim and Hough performed a Viennese Waltz which earned good feedback from the judges, and which earned Kim and Derek the encore performance spot on the results show. In week 6, they danced the jive which earned them the highest scores for the night.

In week 7, Kim and Hough performed a Rumba, where Kim was criticized for having toned down her performance too much, commenting that they wanted to see her usual sexy persona back on the dancefloor. This knocked the couple down to fifth place with the judges. However, in week 8 Kim and Hough rebounded with their Paso Doble earning the highest score for the night. In addition on week 8 she was part of "Team Tango".

In week 9, she was eliminated from the show despite high scores from the judges.

Discography