Five Best Songs from Lil’ Kim’s ‘The Notorious K.I.M.’ Album

It's hard to argue Lil' Kim's status as royalty. Coming in the game under the tutelage of The Notorious B.I.G. would be enough to be mentioned in the annals of rap history as a footnote, but Lil' Kim is much more than that and has managed to stand on her own two feet for two decades.

Lil' Kim first made waves in 1995 as a member of Junior M.A.F.I.A. on the release of the group's debut album, Conspiracy. The Brooklyn rhymer emerged as a star of the group and created anticipation for her debut album, Hardcore.

Released in fall of 1996, Hardcore was a huge success for a solo debut, selling over two million copies and positioning Lil' Kim as the hottest female rapper in the game. Tragedy struck in March 1997 with the death of Biggie, leaving Kim grieving and unsure of what she would do moving forward.

Spending the next few years popping up on a slew of remixes and dropping guest verses on other artists' records, Lil' Kim released her sophomore LP, The Notorious K.I.M., on June 27, 2000. The album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 chart and sold over 229,000 copies in its first week of release. The album went platinum soon after that, and Kim was recognized as one out of a few female rappers who managed to earn two consecutive platinum solo albums at that time.