Episode 238 - Hard Core by Lil Kim (Side B)

As fascinating as Lil Kim’s career is, what is also fascinating is the way her music helped to bring female sexuality “into the mainstream”. In part two of our deep dive into her career, we look a little deeper at this aspect of her music, as well as the legacy this particular approach has left.

Often touted as a feminist, Lil Kim recently said that feminism has always been something of a grey area for her because first and foremost, for her, it’s all about supporting women. It’s clear that her debut album was ground-breaking in how it brought female sexuality to the forefront of popular music in a way which was equally as lewd as what many male rappers were doing at the time.

Is her music empowering? Or does she, by trying to outdo male rappers, become another one of the “boys”, by projecting an image of what men expect a woman to be?

And what of her legacy? Many female rappers cite her as an influence, but are Nicki Minaj, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion actually talking the talk (by creating music that is thematically similar to hers) but failing to walk the walk (by making comments in interviews that demonstrate conservative views that are at odds with the message in their music)?

We grapple with this and bring in some academic sources both from third parties and our own in house academic Marisa Androvik.

We then talk about Hard Core as an album, Chris uncovers his dislike for any kind of humour in music, and we have some properly great nexuses too.