Source: Roy Rochlin / Getty
We may be at the beginning of a whole new decade, but Lil Kim will always feel the way she felt about Notorious, the B.I.G. biopic, when it was released in 2009. She hates it.
She’s made that known on more than one occasion, but reiterated her feelings during an Instagram Live conversation with rapper Fat Joe recently (which her on-again, off-again beau and child’s father, Mr. Papers, sat in for).
“Yeah, no. No. I hate that movie. To me it was like a spoof,” she said. “It was something that I would have never approved. I didn’t like who played me. No. No, no, no, no.”
When asked who she would have liked to play her instead of actress Naturi Naughton, the 46-year-old said she would have preferred to find an unknown burgeoning actress from Brooklyn — and to have had the chance to play herself.
“I would go to Brooklyn and find a girl within that period that I feel represents Brooklyn, knows what it’s like to grow up in Brooklyn,” she said. “And then once I got in the movie and I get a little older, I would play myself from that stage. But from that point, I gotta go to Brooklyn and give some little girl from Brooklyn a chance to really, really show, I know who Lil Kim is for real.”
Before Notorious was set to come out in January of 2019, Kim initially stated her disapproval with how she was portrayed in the project.
“The film studio and producers involved were more concerned about painting me as a ‘character’ to create a more interesting story line instead of a person with talent, self-respect and who was able to achieve her own career success through hard work,” she said in a statement.
But she would later clarify that it wasn’t just how she was portrayed, but who played her that also got under her skin. She didn’t believe Naughton looked like her and she claimed the Power star never tried to speak to her before working on the film.
Naughton initially avoided speaking about Kim’s ire, but during an appearance on TV One’s Uncensored last year, she finally opened up about how Kim’s disapproval with her in the role made her think her darker skin tone was the problem.
“I just wanted to have her blessing, I really did,” she said. “To this day, I have nothing but love and respect for Lil Kim. She really is to me, what has spawned all the careers of the Nicki Minajs and the Cardi Bs. We should all be looking at Lil Kim and being like, ‘Yo, they just took from that book and did it now.’ No disrespect to those artists, but let’s just keep it all the way uncensored. Y’all know y’all got that from Lil Kim. So please give her her just due. So for me, I have nothing but love and respect. And I hope that she knows that I was honored to play her and I hope one day she can see that and really know that.”
However, Kim made it clear during an interview with Hollywood Unlocked after that episode aired that she will never be okay with how things went down.
“I was not okay with that. Don’t disrespect. I would have never picked her. Never, ever, ever,” the rap legend said. “She has nothing in common with me. Nothing. We have nothing in common. And I don’t like the way she’s been disrespectful about it. Because I wasn’t even basically blaming her. But she did a whole documentary coming at me. I was like what is this?”
I’m like, ‘Okay boo. You don’t want this smoke.’ Cuz at the end of the day, I really could really go there,” she added. “I can’t tell you not to take a role and get your money. But don’t say ‘Oh I love her,’ this, that and the third when you’re like, I don’t care what she think. I’m going to still do this movie. So basically, you’re doing it without my stamp of approval. So you’re doing it for a check. Or you’re doing it to come up. That’s fine. But don’t make it seem like I’m hating on you because I don’t want you to do it.. All of that talk she did on the documentary, I felt it was very disrespectful.”
