The Notorious K.I.M.

Reviewed by:
Bill Crandall

“I’m nasty—worse than Howard Stern,” Lil’ Kim gloats on “Who’s Number One?” And she’s not kidding. Best known as the pint-size, bikini-wearing, foul-mouthed disciple of her gunned-down boyfriend, the Notorious B.I.G. (not to mention the sexpot felt up by Diana Ross on the MTV Video Music Awards), the brazen, throaty-voiced rapper’s second album, The Notorious K.I.M., is the nastiest stuff to spew from a girl’s mouth since The Exorcist. During the 18-song erotic odyssey, the self-proclaimed Queen Bitch rhymes about everything from having sex on X to getting her favorite body part sucked in the back of an armored truck. And thanks to bleating electronic beats, samples from tunes ranging from the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” to Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker,” guest vocals from the likes of Sisqo and Grace Jones, and even beyond-the-grave raps from Biggie himself, the album is a feast for the ears as well as the groin. Often evoking the hip-hop and soul stylings of Lauryn Hill, Lil’ Kim’s Notorious isn’t engulfed by her mentor’s gigantic shadow, the way her 1996 debut was. On “Hold On,” an updated version of the R&B classic “Ooh Child,” Kim finds a way to beat the post-B.I.G. blues, joining Mary J. Blige for the towering chorus of “Things are gonna get better.” However, as “Single Black Female,” “Suck My D**k,” and “How Many Licks” (hint: It’s not about a Tootsie Pop) prove, nasty is still what Kim does best.

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