Lil Kim Needs Some Friends

March 1st, 2012 - By Brande Victorian

Source: FemaleRappers.net

Kim could use a new stylist too but let’s just stick to the friends part for now. It’s a shame Lil Kim and Nicki Minaj can’t get along because they really are two peas in a pod. As I look at old pics of how Nicki used to look in her pre-Pink Friday days in Queens, I’m reminded of how Kim looked when she first stepped on the scene with Biggie back in the day. Sadly, that hardcore Brooklyn girl is hardly even noticeable underneath the skin-bleached, plastic-surgery-abused woman we see before us now.

Last night, Kim made what many are considering to be a comeback performance during BET’s Rip the Runway at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, but pics of Kim on the red carpet had many asking why she didn’t bring her eyebrows with her for the appearance. Even more were wondering why her foundation was noticeably lighter than her skin tone which gotten progressively lighter over the years, and at the end of the day, the inquiries and criticisms boiled down to one question: Kim, is that really you?

Lil Kim has been having a full-blown identity crisis in front of the rap community for some years now. First the changes were subtle. A nose job here, a boob job there—it was all run of the mill “maintenance” most performers ascribe to once they’ve made it big. But Kim’s transformations haven’t just been about looking better, it’s clear she wants to look like an entirely different person—possibly one who isn’t even black.

I remember noticing the progression of lip injections,  cheek implants, and nose jobs over the years; the longer, straighter weaves; and the less-ethnic features but I didn’t realize how deep her issues were until “Notorious” came out. Biggie’s mother, Viola Wallace, spoke out about Kim’s disappointment with Naturi Naughton portraying her in the movie, saying Kim wanted a Latina or an Asian woman to play her part and that she felt the character they chose was too dark “Because she’s a white woman trapped in a black woman’s body.”

Is that what this is really about? I can’t help but think about Michael Jackson when I look at Kim and how she’s likely one nose job away from the remaining cartilage in her nasal passages collapsing or how she hated the woman she used to see in the mirror so much that she thinks the way she looks now is somehow better. The stories both artist’s faces and bodies tell is undeniably similar, but hopefully the fate won’t be the same.

When you see someone who looks a mess, sometimes it makes you ask, why didn’t their friends tell them that’s not cute, or you think, they must not have any friends. Kim’s appearance over the past several years makes us ask the same. So often we talk about other black women succumbing to white ideals of beauty and we have one of the most blatant examples right before us and it seems to just be passed off as typical notorious K.I.M. But the transformation from hypersexual and eccentric to pale and plastic isn’t quite the same as wearing a pasty on your breast at an award show to get attention. This woman has serious issues going on and if she completely steps back into the spotlight as she prepares for a new album the pressure to compete with 20-somethings, like Nicki Minaj, and accept herself as she is is only going to get worse. This girl needs some friends around her if she’s truly going to make a comeback in 2012. As far as the makeup artists and the stylists? They’re just wrong.

What do you think about Kim’s transformation over the years? Do you think she has deep issues with her appearance or is she just succumbing to Hollywood pressure?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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  • trymy1god2

    She looks crazy

  • Adorn

    saying Kim wanted a Latina or an Asian woman to play her part and that she felt the character they chose was too dark “Because she’s a white woman trapped in a black woman’s body.”

    that comment stopped my laughter instantly cause this chick obviously needs some medical help. s**t isn’t right in her head. its sad no one close to her has told her to slow up with the surgery or sat down to talk to her, just something to. But still at the end of the day she would “try” to fix whatever she doesn’t like so…..but damn Kim. It sucks cause she has probably paid millions to make herself look ‘unattractive’ she was so pretty before.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JAI4SRENU2A5WKRTELXXYJPDSI Kayla

    I read somewhere “It’s like she is writing Nicki’s lyrics for her” 

  • I”mJustSaying

    The OLD Kim was a pretty petite black woman with some edge to her even her voice was different it was harder…..THIS LIL KIM today..her voice is softer and its obvious she got caught up in HOLLYWOOD’s PLASTIC idea of pretty, fake face,lips, cheeks, nose, hair, boobs, blonde hair, everything… and yes FIRE her stylist for that dry lion’s mane hair on her head and the pale makeup I mean really..if she even thinks she is going to make a comeback looking like that …she needs TO COME BACK in 2040…maybe by then we will have caught up with her look..lol

    • http://hizzandherzorganics.com/ nelson

      SHE WAS CUTE AS HELL in the 90′s when she first appeared. She even looked good after her first jobs. BUT NOW SHE HAS GONE WAY TOO FAR. The thing most Black Celebrities fail to realize is that we don’t ‘IN GENERAL’ even need to go under the knife as we age. IT IS DEFINITELY Hollywood getting in their heads. BUT HEY, Do what feels right for you. JUST REMEMBER no matter how much you MAY WANT TO you can’t ever get your old face back!! So HOLD ON TO IT!!

  • Larrywallace29

    if a person keeps trying to change the way God made them,eventually they’re gonna destroy their natural beauty

  • Byfaith

     Oh Kim. She was such a beautiful woman before all the alterations.

  • Merriegirl

    Oh & Kim’s comment of “Kim wanted a Latina or an Asian woman to play her part and that she felt the character they chose was too dark,” is insane. She clearly bass issues with being a black woman and it is sad. 

    • Vee

      She does have issues with her skin color…it is so sad Lil Kim never saw the beauty in herself.

  • Merriegirl

    I wouldn’t say that Nicki & Kim are “two peas in a pod.” Lil Kim looks lie an extra from a horror film, while Nicki’s plastic surgery is a lot more suttle. 

    • http://hizzandherzorganics.com/ nelson

      And looks a HELL of a lot better!!

  • Love_Sexy

    My goodness…..Can anyone tell me what in the world happen to Lil Kim?……..Geez!

  • Eestoomuch

    i remember the exact moment that i truly understood that michael jackson, may he rest in love, had a serious mental problem. do you all remember the interview with the indian fellow basheer, brasheer, something like that? well, michael was in vegas and they were in this room, i believe he had a whole floor of a hotel to himself and his enterouge…anyway there was a room filled with toy and what not…one being a replica of the jolly green giant, yall remember from the frozen vegetables…the interviewer ask michael why he had that and mike answered…you remember the commercial…”ho,ho,ho green giant!” at that moment, i was like “ths nicca is gone” today, i feel the same way about lil kim….”her brain said bye bye”

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