Lil' Kim

Why she matters

Kimberly Jones was born in Bed-Stuy and grew up freestyling with MC Lyte and the Lady of Rage in her ears. In 1994 the Notorious B.I.G. brought her into his crew Junior M.A.F.I.A., and their 1995 album Conspiracy went gold. She was the member people kept talking about, and by the end of that year she was working on a solo record.

Hard Core came out in November 1996 on Undeas, Big Beat and Atlantic, with Biggie as executive producer and production from Sean Combs, Stevie J, Ski and Jermaine Dupri. Jay-Z turns up as a guest. It debuted at No. 11 on the Billboard 200, at the time the highest debut for a female rap album. The content is explicit, and that was the headline. But what holds up is the craft: tight rhyme schemes, a dry sense of humor, and complete command of the beat. The “Not Tonight” remix, with Missy Elliott, Da Brat, Left Eye and Angie Martinez, is a good snapshot of how many women she was standing next to and how often she still took the room.

The Notorious K.I.M. in 2000 was her first album on her own Queen Bee imprint, and by La Bella Mafia in 2003 she was working with Timbaland, Swizz Beatz and Kanye West and taking a production credit herself.

What a working rapper can take from it

Persona is a writing decision. The “Queen Bee” character was consistent across verses, ad-libs and guest spots. Decide who the narrator is before you write, and cut any line that character wouldn’t say. A persona that wobbles reads as a costume.

Move from member to owner. Kim started inside someone else’s group and someone else’s label, then put her later albums out through her own imprint. That shift starts small: know who owns your masters and publishing on every song you cut. The song-registration guide covers the paperwork, and the split-sheet tool handles the conversation with collaborators.

Hold your own on a posse cut. On a remix with four other strong rappers, the verse that wins usually has the clearest point of view, not the most syllables. Write your guest verses like they’ll be compared, because they will.