A Decent Lil Kim Album? It Must Be One of Those Dreams...

When you contrast the music industry now with the music industry in the mid 1990s, the differences are almost startling. Sales were much better, radio had a bit more diversity and the gender roles were a bit more divided. Although Alanis made some progress with the rockin' anthem of scorn You Oughta Know, males of the industry were still allowed to be sexually explicit and braggadocious about their escapades while women weren't offered the same freedom. Before Lilith Fair in 1997, women were reduced to almost secondary roles in the industry, so the presence of a strong, in-your-face female was, shall we say, lacked. That is, until one brave pint-sized femme rap diva, Lil Kim.

Love her or hate her, Kim blazed a trail for people like Christina Aguilera and Willa ford to feel freer with their sexuality and not be afraid to say "hey, I have sex and I enjoy it". This classic-not-for-the-music album was released in late 1996 and eventually went double platinum.

Tracklisting:
Intro In A Minor
Big Momma Thang featuring Jay-Z (****)
No Time (****)
Spend A Little Doe (*** 1/2)
Interlude- Take It
Crush On You (***)
Drugs (** 1/2)
Interlude- Scheamin'
Queen B (*** 1/2)
Dreams (*** 1/2)
MAFIA Land (****)
We Don't Need It (***)
Not Tonight (** 1/2)
Interlude- Player Haters
**** You (**)

Featuring a then-somewhat unknown Jay-Z working his magic (this rivals Crazy In Love for one of his best cameos), Big Momma Thang is the jam of the album, in terms of beat. With a pornolicious bass, intermittent rhythmic claptrack and a slinky midtempo keyboarded-out-of-its-mind groove, the tracks earns a lot of brownie points for this fact alone. Kim isn't the best emcee in the world but the record isn't in need of one. She's a charismatic, tongue-in-cheek emcee with a tendency to drop names and use a lot of comparisons Heather Hunter/ Janet Jackme/ Take it in the butt, yes, yes, what? but you find yourself getting into it. You believe this 4'11" glamor girl is a big moma with the amount of ego she puts into her lyrics.

No Time, one of the album's several singles, is a blazingly chilled out track with prominent jazzy piano and a subdued bassline. Kim again waxes about her bedroom endeavors but again I take the bait. She's got this tone to her that's like she just got done having sex, the huskiness is working great; she's like "dammit, I'm too cool for this track" and doesn't try as hard, at least she's not as obvious. This type of song comes natural to Kim. My only problem is P. Diddy. Dude, you can be on the track but try contributing something other than the overly repetitive hook and some ultra stale chemistry with Kim. Spend A Little Doe is the first actually serious track on the record with a menacing intro fading into a smoldering track. The bass seals the deal; its not got a party vibe like you expect. Kim spits some story-rap lyrics that you have to hear from the very beginning to really get. It seems like she strays away from her topic but in all actuality she's covering her bases and seals things up on her last verse. The hook is decent but is completely overperformed; the vocalist seems to want to be Beyonce and try to fit (insert large number here) syllables into a short time span.

Crush On You is not the radio version that we're all familiar with. It doesn't feature either of Kim's raps and only has her sensual cooing on the hook. So we're left with Lil' Cease and Biggie. Cease's verses are decent on the slickly produced party jam but without Kim, they lose some of their effect and he doesn't have anyone to play off of. Kim's verses gave a bit of a different perspective and offered a sortof conversational tone instead of Cease's dronings being the lone centerpiece. Biggie handles the all-too-catchy hook like the genius he was and shows that he was the big poppa to Kim's big momma. Drugs, while better than Eminem's atrocious Drug Ballad, is a bit of a snoozer and doesn't hold your attention for long. While the distant, smoky (sorry, bad pun) bass is hot, the beat is much too simple while the hook is just plain stupid. Big shows up again but not to the results he had on the previous track, let's just say. Kim yet again compares sex with something; on this track her schtick is starting to get boring. Oh, and the rhymes are much repetitive. This track is one of those that's a long interlude that's about 2:00 too long. Kim and crew rebound with Queen B, her alias and the name of her label. Its got some good distorted keyboards and a rock solid performance from Kim with some of the most "what?! did she just say that?!" lyrics on the album. Her flow has a bit more depth to it, working well with the beat to create this intoxicating vibe that she should try for more. She puts a lot of effort into her flow because the intensity is just there and stays the entire duration of the track.

Dreams is probably the best concept on the album but could have been cut by a lot if the cute-but-irrelevant intro hadn't been included. Kim turns in probably her funniest performance on the album, although her flow isn't the most original thing in the world. She mentions all of the prominent male r&b singers (the hook is Dreams, dreams, dreams, dreams of fvcking an r&b d!ck) and how she wants to...er....get to know them. Wink, wink. Kim works her way across this surpsisingly serious beat with the charisma of a pro. The mood is relaxed while Kim's husky, just-got-out-of-bed flow adds a whole new element to the track. MAFIA Land is the obligatory "my crew is the isht" track but is one of the best tracks on the record. Starting with an overly dramatic storm effect and forming a vulnerable string-meets-distant-bass track (if you take away the bass, it's a whole other track) that finds Kim going serious for one of the few times on the album. She gives us a realistic view into her life with a down-to-earth flow and an eye-opening array of subjects, including murder, jealousy, robbery, scorn, loneliness and hatred. Kim shows that she has a lot of talent underneath all the gloss she puts on her music.

We Don't Need It and Not Tonight (no, not the track with Angie and all em') are the two tracks that are the most explicit on the album. The prior, complete with an undeniably call-and-response hook, features Cease and Kim spouting some decent but been there, done that verses and a beat similar to Big Momma Thang. The latter, a bit more thought out and reserved JD produced midtempo, has much more r&b influences in it that are only enhanced by the keyboards. Even though this is a Kim record, I honestly was surprised about the rather blunt hook. Kim's completely in charge of this pimpstress track and eventually gets her legs about her after starting out very reserved and held back. *** You is a cheap sounding dud of a track that's not a proper way to end the record.

Overall, while the album itself is average at best, it made a pathway for sexually liberated females in the industry to follow. Although Kim's not the best emcee in the world, the album is kind of hot and deserves a few listens.

Great Music To Play While...: Spending a little doe, shooting a stank nasty porno, chillin' in Mafia Land, scheamin', takin' it in the butt (yes, yes, what?), wishing you had the rhyme skills of Foxy Brown.