AllMovie

Born Kimberly Jones in 1975, the brazenly sexual female rapper Lil' Kim - like so many of her male and female contemporaries on the rap scene - broke loose from a messy and poverty-stricken childhood to establish herself as a superstar at a tender age. Sporting provocative photos and coupling top-notch east coast production with down-and-dirty gangsta lyrics, (the then twenty-one-year-old) Kim's aptly-titled debut EP Hard Core hit stores in November 1996 and shot up to number one. Three successive EPs followed, which boasted collaborations with top-notch rap producers, including Biggie Smalls (who discovered Kim) and Sean 'Puffy' Combs, AKA P. Diddy. These included 2000's Notorious K.I.M., 2003's La Bella Mafia, and 2005's The Naked Truth. She also launched a feature film career, with roles in Juwanna Mann, Zoolander, You Got Served and other A-list features. Riding on the heels of these triumphs, the documentary Lil' Kim: The Brooklyn Queen uses interviews and archival concert footage to trace Kim's rise to megastardom, from her troubled childhood in Bed-Stuy through her first crest over the top of the charts in 1996. It follows her successive albums, her recent court trial and incarceration for perjury, and the popularity she has maintained over the course of her initial decade.