Today in Hip Hop History, Lil’ Kim released her debut album Hard Coreon November 12, 1996. The Brooklyn-born pint-sized rapper changed the course of hip hop. Before Megan Thee Stallion bounced in a thong and before Nicki Minaj wore the colorful wigs— there was Lil Kim. Her album Hard Core album showed women in a different light compared to what we had seen from veterans like MC Late and Queen Latifah. Lil Kim unabashedly spoke on her sex life and what she demanded from any man trying to court her. From her fashions to her hair to her aggressive rap style, she ushered women into the 2000s with sexy confidence we hadn’t seen before.
“No Time” quickly became an anthem and girls everywhere initiated Lil Kim as the Queen. There was an unforgettable promo poster released that stirred up a conversation and was plastered all over New York City. She and her crew Junior Mafia became one of the biggest groups in Hip hop led by the late great Notorious B.I.G. Today we salute Lil Kim for a classic album, that still knocks to this day. Check out some of our favorites of the album Hardcore.
Mandatory Credit: Photo by Ringo H W Chiu/AP/Shutterstock
Elon Musk isn’t happy that Eminem is supporting Vice President Kamala Harris in the election. With news breaking of Slim Shady introducing former president Barack Obama at a Detroit rally, Musk would levy a wild allegation on Em’s name.
Seeing the message, Musk wrote in regards to Eminem: “Yet another Diddy party participant.”
You can see it below.
Elon Musk calls Eminem "yet another Diddy party participant" after it was revealed that he will introduce Obama at Kamala Harris' upcoming rally pic.twitter.com/vV2OnoRiiN
As far as the accusations, it’s highly unlikely Eminem was at any Diddy “freak off.” Eminem took some very vicious shots at Diddy on his new album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de grâce): Expanded Mourner’s Edition, where Em recruits Shady Records’ Westside Boogie and Grip while he delves into Hip Hop’s most reputed unsolved murders and he pulls no punches about who the culprit is.
On “Fuel” Shady goes in on the troubled mogul, rapping, “So who’ll be picked next, whose name gonna be next up? / Notorious B.I.G.’s death was the domino effect of Tupac’s murder / Like facial tissue, whose clock should I clean next? Puff’s? / ‘Til he’s in police handcuffs, guilty, will he step up? / Like gee, never turned himself in, who knows all the murders there’ll have been?!?”
The original version of Fuel featured J.Cole’s artist JID, who, among other things, criticized Diddy for the infamous Cassie video.
The Bad Boy founder always denied any involvement in the shooting deaths of either Big or ‘Pac and there’s no evidence that he will be subpoenaed in Duane “Keefe D” Davis’ ongoing murder trial in Vegas.
Eminem fans are actually upset with his latest offering, complaining about the long wait for an album that only contains three tracks.
In an exclusive sit down with Hip Hop podcast Art Of Dialogue, vocal Brand Nubian member Lord Jamar delves into the lyrical content of one of the Notorious B.I.G.’s classic hits amid Diddy’s sex trafficking and racketeering scandal and says that some of Biggie’s bars aren’t aging well in this day and time.
“Biggie has some of the most out-of-pocket lyrics of any rapper ever and hopefully there will never be a rapper with worse lyrics,” Jamar injected into the convo. “But there’s so much sh*t that Biggie said that people just overlooked at the time and now, when we fast-forward to where we’re at, and hear about all the sh*t with Puff, now, certain things are not aging. It was bad back then but it’s aging even worse.” He went on to say, “I don’t care how good a woman looks, I would never give fellatio to her father because she’s so beautiful.”
Jamar then expounded on an industry rumor that there was a transgender “dude” in the videos for “Big Poppa” and in the bed with Biggie in the visuals for “Warning”. He went on to say that the same transgender was in the “Flava In Ya Ear” (Remix) video dancing behind LL Cool J, who began his verse saying “HeShe!”
He concluded his take on the current climate around Diddy by saying, “With all of this baby oil splashing around, you’re gonna get some on you. If you get some on you, that’s when things start to get slippery.”
Eminem took some very vicious shots at Diddy on his new album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de grâce): Expanded Mourner’s Edition, where Em recruits Shady Records’ Westside Boogie and Grip while he delves into Hip Hop’s most reputed unsolved murders and he pulls no punches about who the culprit is.
On “Fuel” Shady goes in on the troubled mogul, rapping, “So who’ll be picked next, whose name gonna be next up? / Notorious B.I.G.’s death was the domino effect of Tupac’s murder / Like facial tissue, whose clock should I clean next? Puff’s? / ‘Til he’s in police handcuffs, guilty, will he step up? / Like gee, never turned himself in, who knows all the murders there’ll have been?!?”
The original version of Fuel featured J.Cole’s artist JID, who goes in on Diddy about the infamous Cassie video among other things.
The Bad Boy founder always denied any involvement in the shooting deaths of either Big or ‘Pac and there’s no evidence that he will be subpoenaed in Duane “Keefe D” Davis’ ongoing murder trial in Vegas.
Eminem fans are actually upset with his latest offering, complaining about the long wait for an album that only contains three tracks.
On September 13, 1994, Notorious B.I.G., alongside producers Easy Mo Bee, DJ Premier, Poke of the Trackmasters, and none other than “Puffy” (as Diddy was called then) as the executive producer, released the Hip Hop masterpiece known as Ready To Die.
As Big’s debut album, this highly anticipated release shows the lyrical prowess of the Bed-Stuy big man, and besides Method Man’s assistance on the epic “The What?” track, Mr. Wallace made it happen all by himself. Other than Nas’ Illmatic, no other solo emcee accomplished that feat on the East Coast during that era. Recognized as “The King Of New York” and as seen on a vintage 1995 Source Magazine cover, Big’s legacy was etched in stone with this LP.
Timeless classics from that four-and-a-half mic-er include the DJ Premier-produced “Unbelievable,” the back-and-forth storytelling adventures of “Warning” and “Gimme The Loot,” and the eerie title track itself were just a few of the highlights of this legendary project. That’s not to forget the mainstream success of singles such as “One More Chance,” the Brooklynplayalistic sound of “Big Poppa,” and, of course, the hood inspirational, Mtume-based “Juicy.”
We only had the chance to get one more album(prophetically named Life After Death) out of one of the game’s greatest lyricists before he was prematurely killed in Los Angeles in 1997. Still, this album will always remind us that B.I.G. was “Ready to Die” because his talent was and will always be larger than life.
Salute to Big (RIP), Premier, Easy, Poke, Lord Finesse, Diddy, Lil’ Kim, and the entire Wallace family for this classic masterpiece!
The Notorious B.I.G.’s multi-platinum debut, Ready to Die, celebrates its 30th anniversary with a special 2-LP reissue featuring newly reimagined limited edition cover art.
On September 13—the album’s original release date—Ready To Die (30th Anniversary) will be available as a double album on black vinyl from Rhino.com and biggiemerch.com. On the same day, a color vinyl edition will be available exclusively at select retailers.
Earlier this year, the Library of Congress inducted Ready To Dieinto the National Recording Registry. In the essay accompanying the induction, author and journalist Justin Tinsley writes, “In its true essence, the album is a response to American capitalism and just how deadly the pursuit of money could be and was for so many–in particular, young Black folks in America. ‘Ready To Die’ is a response to so many moments in American history before it: the economic crisis that nearly crippled New York in the 1970s, the crack explosion of the ’80s (and the unfathomable violence and destruction it brought) and Reagonomics, ‘Stop-And-Frisk’-era policies that crippled Black communities… ‘Rolling Stone’ dubbed the album ‘the precise moment when hip-hop’s golden age transitioned into its modern age, the height of New York hip-hop and the sound of the greatest rapper of all time at the absolute top of his power.’”
The album’s lead single, “Juicy,” achieved gold certification upon release and peaked at No. 3 on the Hot Rap Singles chart, crossing over to reach No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100. Since its release, the platinum-certified track has garnered over 1 billion streams and was named the best hip-hop song of all time by the BBC. The second single, “Big Poppa,” was an even bigger success; with over 1 billion streams to date, it topped the Rap and R&B charts and reached No. 6 on the Hot 100. It was certified platinum at the time and nominated for the GRAMMY® Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. In addition, a remix of “One More Chance” topped the Rap and R&B charts and peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100.
The iconic record has been certified 6x platinum and is widely regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever, making the Apple Music 100 Best Albums of All Time and No. 1 on Rolling Stone’s The 200 Greatest Hip-Hop Albums of All Time.
On this date in 1997, the Hip Hop mogul formerly known as Puff Daddy put an album together with the entire Bad Boy Hip Hop roster and dubbed them “The Family” and released the label’s only collaborative effort, Puff Daddy and The Family’s No Way Out on the Bad Boy imprint.
Less than a year after the untimely death of the Notorious B.I.G., Diddy, who was then known as “Puff Daddy”, along with Ma$e, Black Rob, Loon and a few other Bad Boys for this monumental album.
The Grammy Award-winning album went platinum in one year with the help from tracks like “All About The Benjamins (Remix)”, “Been Around The World,” and “I’ll Be Missing You” featuring Phil Collins, dedicated to the late executive producer of the album and co-architect of the Bad Boy legacy, Notorious B.I.G.
In the summer of 1993, a young record exec who was known as “Puff Daddy” started a label called Bad Boy Records which premiered two records to launch the label; the first being the premier track from the legendary Notorious B.I.G. called “Party & Bullshit”. The song appeared on the soundtrack of Who’s The Man, a movie with Hip Hop’s who’s who starring Yo! MTV Raps‘ Ed Lover & Dr. Dre.
Biggie Smalls became one of the most prolific MCs in the history of the culture and is arguably one of the best that the game has ever seen. Before B.I.G. became “Notorious”, Biggie and Junior Mafia were only about “Party & Bullshit”. Salute to B.I.G., Diddy, Bad Boy, and the whole Brooklyn.
On June 25, 1996, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, Dame Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke embarked on a creative journey that has morphed into a billion-dollar movement today with the release of the Reasonable Doubt LP.
Released courtesy of their independent Roc-A-Fella imprint, Jay’s premier album was promoted and sanctioned by the streets, with previews of the album via sampler cassettes hitting the streets in the winter of 1995. The album’s first single, “Ain’t No Nigga”, featuring a then-teenage Foxy Brown, was the introduction of “Jigga” to the industry that would eventually put him in the pole position of the rap game.
Other unforgettable tracks from one of the prototype LPs of the “mafia rap” era include, “Dead Presidents II,” “Can’t Knock The Hustle,” which features Mary J. Blige, “Brooklyn’s Finest” with the late Notorious B.I.G. and the introduction of Marcy young gun Memphis Bleek on “Coming Of Age”.
All-star production from the likes of DJ Premier, Irv Gotti, Ski and Clark Kent propelled the album along with Jay’s common street ethics surgically placed melodically on the beats.
Salute to Jay, Biggs, Dame, Pain In Da Ass and the rest of the old Roc-A-Fella staff for this timeless classic!
Today, “the greatest rapper of all time” was born; Brooklyn’s own Christopher Wallace, better known as the Notorious B.I.G. Smalls had the game on lock before an unknown suspect gunned him down on March 9, 1997. His music, however, lives on.
From his debut single, “Juicy,” to charted success through his collaborations with protégé group, Junior Mafia to the infamous East Coast/West Coast beef, and his individual feud with West Coast rapper, Tupac, Smalls’ triumph is legendary and continues to resonate with fans.
The rap slayer had numerous hits in his catalog and even more memorable lines. There were several times, however, Smalls was ruthless and aggressive, although as fans we may have been unaware if there was an underlying issue or a diss record target, but we definitely rapped along with his merciless storytelling lyrics. In honor of the Notorious’ 46th birthday, here are 10 most cutthroat Biggie Smalls lyrics.
Dead Wrong
“Relax and take notes, while I take tokes of the marijuana smoke. Throw you in a choke – gun smoke, gun smoke. Biggie Smalls for mayor, the rap slayer, the hooker layer – motherf*cker say your prayers. Hail Mary full of grace; smack the b*tch in the face, take her Gucci bag and the North Face off her back. Jab her if she act funny with the money, oh you got me mistaken honey.”
Machine Gun Funk
“Sticks and stones break bones, but the gat’ll kill you quick, especially when I’m drunk off the liquor.”
Respect
“Now I’m thirteen, smokin’ blunts, makin’ cream, on the drug scene, f*ck a football team. Riskin’ ruptured spleens by the age of sixteen. Hhearing ‘ the coach scream at my lifetime dream, I mean I wanna blow up, stack my dough up. So school I didn’t show up, it f*cked my flow up.”
Kick In Ya Door
“So, Jesus, get off the Notorious penis, before I squeeze and bust. If the beef between us, we can settle it with the chrome and metal sh*t. I make it hot, like a kettle get, you’re delicate, you better get, who sent ya?”
Party and Bullsh*t
“But all we wanna know is “Where the party at?” And can i bring my gat? If not, I hope I don’t get shot. But I throw my vest on my chest ’cause n*ggas is a mess. It don’t take nothin’ but frontin’ for me to start somethin’.”
10 Crack Commandments
“Number nine, shoulda been number one to me: if you ain’t getting bagged stay the f*ck from the police. If n*ggas think you snitchin they aint tryna listen. They be sitting in your kitchen, waiting to start hitting.”
Suicidal Thoughts
“When I die, f*ck it I wanna go to hell. Cause I’m a piece of sh*t, it ain’t hard to f*ckin’ tell. It don’t make sense, goin’ to heaven wit the goodie-goodies. Dressed in white, I like black timbs and black hoodies. God will probably have me on some real strict shit. No sleepin’ all day, no gettin my d*ck licked.”
Notorious Thugs
“Armed and dangerous, ain’t too many can bang with us. Straight up weed, no angel dust, label us Notorious. Thug ass n*ggas that love to bust, it’s strange to us. Y’all n*ggas be scramblin, gambling. Up in restaurants with mandolins, and violins. We just sittin here tryin to win, tryin not to sin. High off weed and lots of gin. So much smoke need oxygen, steadily counting them Benjamins.”
Who Shot Ya?
“Who shot ya? Separate the weak from the obsolete. Hard to creep them Brooklyn streets. It’s on, n*gga, f*ck all that bickering beef. I can hear sweat trickling down your cheek. Your heartbeat sound like Sasquatch feet. Thundering, shaking the concrete….
I burn, baby, burn like Disco Inferno. Burn slow like blunts with yayo. Peel more skins than Idaho potato. N*ggas know, the lyrical molestin’ is takin’ place. F*ckin’ with B.I.G. it ain’t safe.”
Freestlye at MSG
“I got 7 Mac-11’s. About eight 38s. Nine 9s. 10 Mac Tens. The shit never ends. You can’t touch my riches. Even if you had MC Hammer and them 357 b*tches…..Oh my God I’m dropping shit like a pigeon. I hope your listening. Smacking babies at their christening.”
