Lil Kim Becomes The Latest Addition To Roc Nation

I agree with cats spewing Jean's name, she's bananas, no doubt -- but let's face it, ma doesn't exactly have much commercial cred. Everybody knows Jean and Rah Digga are probably the most ridiculous emcee's on the Venus side, but where's there been proof that Jay's not about MONEY? LOL! Jean's making more money as an indie anyway. Leave her be.

I'm not going to make assumptions about what you listen to, I ain't ignorant. Personally, I prefer Jean's style, delivery, chrisma and punchlines to Lil' Kim's. I agree that energy, persona can make people hype, there are a lot of factors that go into making an emcee listenable (and people put more weight on different things). I think the main point I was trying to make is that hip-hop (commercial hip-hop) is hella saturated with people saying the exact same thing and having the same personas. Most of the personas don't do anything shed light on anything positive about Black people only negative...that's what I have a problem with. The industry signs people like K'naan and Lupe (who I'm fans of)...only so that when they are called out for only pushing shit that is hell ignorant they can point to the handful (literally) of major label cats who can make an enitire album without perpetuating negative stereotypes. Black people are more than pushers and hoes. That's all I'm saying. Diversify. The problem is that Lil' Kim's all around slut-persona (which ain't any real form of female empowerment), her blonde hair and fake titties appeal to the mainstream public. The same crowd that watches half-ass shows like the "The Hills". I listen to a lot of different artists...e.g., K-Os, Freeway, Brother Ali, Pac Div, A Tribe Called Quest, P.O.S., Ice Cube, Gang Starr, Royce Da 5'9, Raekwon...etc. You might even catch me bumping some Cam'ron or some Drake from time to time. I'm all over the map, all of these artists are a hella of a lot more talented and original than Kim, in my opinion. I could name about 1000 more.

Jean Grae is pretty good lyrically, but she's just boring. It's the same as that whole crop of backpack era MCs that she came up with. Her stuff looks good on paper, but she just has no charisma or attitude. Look, I know I know I know, 'It's about lyrics blah blah blah', and to some extent I agree with that. But I also like MC's to have something else that differentiates them and gives them an edge. Lil' Kim doesn't get a lot of credit from me simply because she doesn't write her own shit, but at least she has some pizazz and some energy. Those coffee shop MCs put me to sleep. And don't respond with some short sighted comment like "I bet you're a fan of so-n-so" and "you don't know shit about Hip-Hop". I'm a straight up Hip-Hop purist, but I recognize that being an MC is not ALL about your rhymes, it's also about your presence and showmanship and all-around listenability.