July 08, 2003 @ 2:41 pm

Lil' Kim: La Bella Mafia

by: Laylah A. Barrayn

For those of us who came of age during the mid 90s, our respective hoods were all we knew of the world. For us, the outer city limits marked the universe. It was a time when hip hop was approaching a crossroad and rappers were deciding whether to remain

Mafia's theme is problematic because Kim speaks as if she already passed the climax of her life (when Biggie discovered her) and now she is only reflecting. It would seem as if there wasn't any more living left. On another level, Mafia can be characterized as the musical shrine for The Notorious B.I.G. The problems begin when Kim invokes controversial musical counterpart, R. Kelly. His melancholy "A Woman's Threat" is transformed into a ranting session on "This Is A Warning." Here Kim takes on the haters who want "my style, my life, my blood." She advises: "Bit*hes please/ If you don't stop/ Someone's gonna find your ass dead…Someone's puttin' tags on your toes/Someone better pray for you." A stable of guest appearances add color to Mafia. The ubiquitous 50 Cent provides a yodel-slur on the hook of "Magic Stick." Lil Shanice, a suspiciously young rapper, and hopefully not "Lil Kim: The Sequel," trades lines with her mentor on "Shake Ya Bum Bum." Missy Elliott is featured on "(When Kim Say) Can You Hear Me Now;" the track, not produced by Elliott, is a clear knock-off of Supa Dupa Fly's "Beep Me 911." And Kanye West's sampling of Irene Reid's "Didn't We" for "Came Back For You" is a clever, producer's-moment that offers classic hip hip flavor. Just for the record, it's a sound that other producers could achieve if they cared to fuse soul and hip hop, with any seriousness. The first single "The Jump Off" has already proven to be…the jump off. Although not immediately contagious, the Timbaland-produced, riotous tuba-driven track is simultaneously a commercial success and the artistic pulse of the CD. "Get In Touch With Us" is where the living fashion statement and Styles P shoot tenored vocal attacks over a track suffused with sampled Hindi vocals and Shalion-violins. "Can't F*ck With The Queen Bee" and "Doing It Way Big" are two more enthusiastic moments with productions by 80s hip hop outfit, Full Force and J. Waxx Garfeild, respectively. On "This Is Who I Am," produced by Casio virtuoso, Swizz Beatz, Kim is most impactful as she self-reflects and theorizes: "Just cause you got a head start don't make you the strongest/ he who burns last burns the longest." But she practically negates her wisdom when she follows by disappointingly defining herself as a mere remnant of Biggie. "The fact is that I'm the legacy of B.I.G." Constantly crediting Brooklyn's beloved lyricist for her success further diminishes the woman behind the moniker, Lil' Kim. If she goes down in history as merely Biggie's protégé or the life-sized Black Barbie, the fault would be her own for she has become co-engineer of her own disenfranchisement. As Kim constantly refracts the light of Biggie Smalls onto herself, she forgets to turn shine on her stalwart lyrical skills. And it's a shame, because as her chaperoned imagination topically navigates her rhymes, we never fully get to know Queen Bee, the artist. While La Bella Mafia isn't quite the Notorious K.I.M., Lil' Kim's sexual bravado is cut down a notch from that of Hard Core. And though her demands for money, power, and respect are far too modest to live up to the aura the title projects, as a unit, it shows Big Mama taking artistic baby steps.

Article tags: Lil, Kim, Bella, Mafia 

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