Lil’ Kim Talks Notorious B.I.G. Gun Rumor, Nicki Minaj, & New Music

With her new track “Took Us a Break” out now, Lil’ Kim stopped by Hot 97’s “Ebro in the Morning” for an in-depth conversation about her career, her relationship with The Notorious B.I.G., and her feud with Nicki Minaj.

During the interview, Kim corroborated a story that Jermaine Dupri recently shared on the “Drink Champs” podcast. The producer revealed that Biggie pulled a gun on her after a dispute in the studio. “There’s nothing wrong with him telling that story. It’s a part of history. Of course I remember that day,” she explained. “It happened. The story is not exactly how he said it, but it’s very close to the truth. We did have a very violent relationship. I hate that, but for awhile, that was all I attracted.”

She continued, by revealing that their relationship was full of ups and downs. “When we were together, it always turned into a lover’s quarrel or a lover’s nest,” she added. “A lot of times, it wasn’t the best thing. That day was one of the days where it probably wasn’t the best thing.”

Speaking of Nicki Minaj, the Queen Bee said that she did not think about her longtime foe while working on Remy Ma’s “Wake Me Up,” which is allegedly a diss track about the Young Money star. “My mind is always on that bag. My mind ain’t on ol’ girl or anything else,” she said. “I don’t care about that but I don’t know what Remy’s approach to her verses was. I’m on the hook and I do a bridge. I thought it would be so boss because it’s a familiar song. If all goes well, I will be doing the remix. It’s so boss for me to let Remy do her thing and she kind of homaged me on this whole song. It’s a dope ass song. I know my fans are gonna love it. This song is something they’ve always wanted me to kind of do.”

Kim went on to say that reconciling with Nicki would take a lot more than a conversation. “When there’s a lot of damage done, it could happen, but if it happens now, it’s about a check, about that bag, because you not really real,” she said.

Read more of Kim’s thoughts on Nicki, female unity, ghostwriting, her upcoming documentary, and Prodigy, below.

On Nicki Minaj: “You get so many windows in life and you get so many times in the music industry to make something right. When you shun it, at one point, people are gonna be like, you phony. I can’t. A snake is a snake. I’m not gonna pick it up just because it was being nice to me, wrapping around my leg. It’s still a snake. That situation, it would have to probably be a business move and compensation. It’s a lot of damage. Me and Remy, there never was that much damage between us. There was always respect.”

On Ghostwriting: “Everybody knows I get busy with the pen but I loved when Big used to come and persuade some of my raps because he’s the freaking greatest. Why wouldn’t I? But everybody knows all our hit records, ‘Benjamins,’ ‘Get Money,’ all these records, ‘Crush On You,’ is all me. Puffy will tell you. All these people will tell you. But the influence he had on my raps and my music, he used to say it made me lazy sometimes when he was around. I know like, if I’m sitting there and I’m stuck on the fourth bar, I know he’s gonna jump in like, ‘Say this.’ He always wanted me to stand on my own so Hard Core was mainly me and a couple of songs he influenced.”

On Her Documentary: “In my documentary that we’re still working on, you’ll know, exactly, I made this new sound and it was stolen from me. The sound, whether my fans would have liked it or not, it was a new sound. The producer I was working with was Detail. Detail is a beast. I introduced him to Slim and Baby, Cash Money…We worked on this sound for a long ass time and we finally got it. When you see this documentary, it will be fully explained exactly what happened.”

On New Music: “The new music now, I was able to display a little bit both. It’s gonna be, to me, a happy medium. A super happy medium. I have a song now called ‘Catch My Wave’ and it’s a mixture of Hard Core Kim and now. … These songs is so ingenious. I’m really proud of these records. I collaborated with a lot of people.”

On Female Rap Unity: “I’m always for unity. I got the biggest ‘Ladies’ Night’ record so I don’t understand how people could say I was never for unity. Everyone is like, ‘That’s blasphemy almost to say that.’ I’ve always embraced every female. My video ‘Get Money’ had females that came before me in it. That’s the only way to do it. When you come in the game, disrespecting your idols.”

On Prodigy: “He wasn’t supposed to make it past a certain age but he did. He beat the odds. God bless him and his family.”

On Beyoncé & JAY-Z dressing as Biggie & Kim for Halloween: “Wasn’t that so dope? I want to see the whole picture though. I was like, ‘That’s so dope!'”