8 Black Celebrities Who Have Opened Up About Being Unhoused - Page 6

6. Lil Kim

As arguably the greatest female rapper of all-time, Lil Kim has millions through her hit songs highlighted by her gritty rhymes, but before she became the Queen Bee, she was without shelter multiple times throughout her life.

The earliest instance was in the early 80s after her parents separated and her mother faced financial struggles. “I was basically living out of the trunk of my car,” Kim’s mother Ruby Mae Jones said in an interview with The Washington Post. “And I didn’t feel it was appropriate for [the children]. So I let Kim go to live with her father.”

After issues between her and her father began to get violent, with frequent arguments and physical abuse, Kim left the home at the age of 14, she told the outlet, where she went on to live with different neighbors who provided shelter. She admitted that during her teen years she did  “whatever I had to do to survive.”