Lil Kim: Publicity or Revenge?

Now I usually don’t do this, but erm…

Over AIM last night, a question was posited to me about why Lil Kim was attacking Nicki Minaj. My one word answer: “publicity”.

[Insert disclaimers here!!]

I do not claim to be a gossip blogger, if for no other reason than because I have a full-time job and I do not have time to keep up with celebrities’ lives and scandals myself… I’d rather let NecoleBitchie or Michael K tell me what happened over the last few days.

Nor do I claim to know everything about the music industry.

Nor can I claim, with a straight face, that I am a true hip-hop head that can weave you through the annals of hip hop and rap starting from the first person who dared to speak words in cadence over a sampled beat to the latest “genius” rapper that was signed to Def Jam… or wherever.

But I digress.

Back to Lil Kim and her reckless tweets. Here’s the background of the story as I understand it. Nicki Minaj, a female rapper who often employs multicolored looks and is inspired by being the “black Barbie”,  is poised to “take over the music industry” as the latest, greatest female rapper (notice the qualifier? But that’s for another day). However, Nicki draws many comparisons to Lil Kim. And why not? Lil Kim was a trailblazer and has firmly cemented her place in hip hop history. And as such, any rapper who imitates her style, in my opinion should be looked on as an honor.

I don’t think Lil Kim agrees. She wanted Nicki Minaj to “pay her homage”. How? I’m not really sure. There’s talks of how Lil Kim says she reached out to Nicki as a mentor and was shot down. Nicki, on the other hand, claims she’s been nothing less than civil and respectful. And I have no idea what actually happened, so that’s where we’ll leave it.

So why is Lil Kim attacking Nicki Minaj? Publicity, of course… And then I read her tweets. And I was hit upside the head by the acrid tone in many of them. Nicki Minaj wasn’t her true target… Drake wasn’t her true target. Her true target is Diddy. In fact, she throws about many claims including some that Diddy is gay and listing artists whose careers that he has supposedly ruined.

My mouth dropped as I read her tweets. My thoughts? “OMG WHERE IS YOUR PUBLICIST?!?!!!” My responses on AIM were either she doesn’t have a publicist or her publicist sucks because she been allowed to put out uncontrolled messages. Or, maybe the publicist subscribes to the age old adage of “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”.  Because, of course, Kim has an album coming out soon, right?

And of course there will be the Lil Kim stans who will jump on the bandwagon and diss Nicki Minaj as a no talent hack and wannabe. And there will be the people who enjoy witnessing conflict and will gladly sign up to watch this drama unfold with a bucket of popcorn by their side. And there will be the people who shake their head and walk away from the entire mess.

I wonder about her emotional state. Diddy is not a saint by any stretch of the imagination, I’d assume, but what in Kim’s history caused such animosity towards him? What in her history makes her feel the logical decision is to attack a potential protege (because of said potential protege’s apparent alliance with Diddy)? And I wonder about her publicist who can’t possibly be all that concerned about her career and image if aware of her tweets and encouraging the tone of her tweets.

So why is Lil Kim attacking Nicki Minaj? Who cares knows…

But whatever the reason… guess who’s talking about Lil Kim vs Nicki Minaj?