(AllHipHop News) Lil Kim is prepared to return to the media spotlight with new music, but not before she makes some key adjustments. In an interview for Billboard’s Ladies First: 31 Female Rappers Who Changed Hip-Hop, Lil Kim explains changes her pregnancy has already had on her music, past label problems and how she can no longer be “Hard Core”.
Kim revealed that she was pregnant with her first child by rapper Mr. Paper back in February. The normally in-charge MC now has her recording schedules planned by her child:
The baby dictates what days I go to the studio. I did work in the earlier stages of [my pregnancy]. My belly is pretty out there right now, but, I’m still working.
The album that truly established Lil Kim as an international presence in the music industry was 2000’s Notorious K.I.M., which has sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide. Atlantic Records and the album’s executive producer, Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs did not agree on a number of key decisions made with her album, according to Kim. One that she highlights in the interview is the choice for the album’s first single:
We ended up going with ‘No Matter What They Say.’ That definitely wasn’t me and Puff’s choice as the first single. But Puffy is a business man, so we compromised. We knew we had singles but Atlantic didn’t see our vision. I think our word should have meant more but we wanted their support.
For her upcoming album, Lil Kim acknowledges the realities of a soon-to-be mom rapping about the same things she did on her 1996 debut album Hardcore:
My new music is not going to be ‘Hard Core.’ It’s going to be sexy, of course. But you can’t do the same beautiful thing twice, the same exact way. Lightning [can] strike twice but it’s not going to be the same design or come at the same place. I just want to be creative.