Source: Hello Beautiful / iOne
One the culture’s most influential performers is getting heavy respect put on her name. A leading Black women’s publication has chronicled her rise to stardom.
One online media outlet is giving Lil Kim her flowers now and by the dozens. In Hello Beautiful’s new digital issue titled “Anatomy Of An Icon”, the staff highlights the Brooklyn diva’s indelible fingerprint in today’s generation of Hip-Hop and in fashion alike. The feature details her career of more than 25 years and all the moments that changed the game. Penned by Deputy Editor Shamika Sanders, the piece not only gets insights from style influencers and her peers, but none other than the Queen B*tch herself.
Clover Hope, long-time Rap journalist and author of The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop, explained how her arrival was like no other. “Her entry into the game was a turning point for women in Rap where image became so much more of a focus, like showing sexuality and being stylish also,” she said. One of the main architects in Kim’s career is stylist Misa Hylton. She revealed that the two met at Diddy’s Scarsdale home when The Notorious B.I.G. was recording his debut album. “Kim came and she was hanging out at the house and she was so fly and her hair was fly.”
Kim also recalls how she was one of the first rappers to be embraced by luxury fashion designers, including how Marc Jacobs recited her lyrics to her raunchy “How Many Licks” to her when they met. “The fashion world has always used music as their motivation because I know when I used to fit and me and Marc [Jacobs] would have lunch in his showroom while he was creating looks for one of his fashion shows, he would always be playing my music,” she said. “He would be playing How Many Licks, and I would be like, ‘You know this song?’ He would be like, ‘Girl, please!,’ and that’s when I first met him. I was so shocked, but I was more shocked that he knew almost every song!”
You can read “Anatomy Of An Icon” here.
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