It’s one of those stories that feels like it belongs in a movie, but the reality was way messier. You’ve seen the photos—the fur coats, the ice, the way they looked at each other on stage. But the bond between Lil Kim and Biggie Smalls wasn't just some hip-hop fairytale. It was a high-stakes, often painful, and deeply transformative partnership that literally changed the sound of the 90s.
Honestly, it’s hard to imagine what the rap game would look like today if a teenage Kimberly Jones hadn't bumped into Christopher Wallace on a Brooklyn street corner in the early 90s. She was just a kid who’d had a rough time, staying with friends or whoever would take her in after things soured with her dad. Biggie? He was already becoming a legend in the making.
When she rapped for him that first time, he didn't just hear a girl with a cute flow. He heard a star.
The Making of the Queen Bee
Biggie didn’t just discover Kim; he curated her. He was the one who pushed her to lean into that "gangsta porno rap" persona that terrified conservative parents and thrilled the streets. Before she was the solo icon we know now, she was the "Lieutenant" of Junior M.A.F.I.A., the crew Biggie built to make sure everyone from his block was eating.
People forget that Biggie basically ghostwrote a huge chunk of that early Junior M.A.F.I.A. material. You can hear his cadence in her voice on tracks like "Player’s Anthem." It’s subtle, but it’s there—that rhythmic, heavy-hitting Brooklyn bounce.
But don't get it twisted. Kim wasn't just a puppet. By the time Hard Core dropped in 1996, she was carving out her own lane. She was using her sexuality as a weapon in a way no female rapper had ever dared to. It was revolutionary. It was also deeply tied to her relationship with Biggie, who was acting as her mentor, lover, and biggest critic all at once.
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A Love Triangle That Actually Hurt
While the music was hitting the charts, the personal lives of Lil Kim and Biggie Smalls were a total wreck. In 1994, Biggie did something that shocked everyone—he married R&B singer Faith Evans after only knowing her for about eight days.
Imagine being Kim. You’re working side-by-side with this man every day. You’re in love with him. He’s telling you you’re the one. And then, he marries someone else.
Faith has since admitted she had no clue Kim and Biggie were a "thing" for a long time. She was focused on her marriage, while Kim was heartbroken and, frankly, still very much in Biggie’s life. It created this legendary tension that fueled tabloids for years. Kim later admitted that the betrayal made her feel like she couldn't compete with "European-looking" women, a deep-seated insecurity that she says contributed to her later obsession with plastic surgery.
The Dark Side of the "Big Papa" Era
We like to romanticize the 90s, but the truth about Lil Kim and Biggie Smalls is that their relationship was frequently volatile. Kim has been open in more recent years about the fact that things sometimes turned violent.
There’s a famous story Jermaine Dupri told about being in the studio while Kim was recording. Biggie supposedly showed up and pulled a gun on her because of a personal dispute. Kim later confirmed the story on Ebro in the Morning, saying it was true, though she blamed it on him being a "Gemini" and having two sides to his personality.
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"He’d love you to death... but he was in between thinking he had to be some way sometimes and being who he really was." — Lil Kim
It’s a heavy thing to reckon with. On one hand, he was her "Big Papa" who bought her $7,500 Fendi bags and made her fish and spaghetti at 3:00 AM. On the other, he was a man who could be incredibly controlling and physically intimidating.
Life After the Shooting
When Biggie was killed in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997, Kim’s world basically ended. She was in New York preparing for a show when she got the news. For years after, she spoke about him as if he were still alive, even crediting him as a producer on her second album, The Notorious K.I.M..
She told Newsweek years later that she even kept some of his ashes in an urn at her home. That’s the level of devotion we’re talking about. He wasn't just her boyfriend; he was her father figure, her brother, and her teacher.
What Most People Get Wrong
The biggest misconception is that Kim was just a "side piece" or a secondary character in Biggie's story. In reality, she was his muse. Their collaborations on tracks like "Get Money" and "Another" show a chemistry that was unmatched. They pushed each other.
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Another thing? People think the beef with Faith Evans lasted forever. It didn't. They eventually reconciled, even collaborating on the track "Loving You for Life" for the posthumous The King & I album. It’s a rare example of two women deciding that the man they both loved was worth more than a lifelong grudge.
Why This Relationship Still Matters Today
If you look at the landscape of female rap today—Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, Nicki Minaj—the DNA of Lil Kim and Biggie Smalls is everywhere. Biggie gave Kim the platform to be unapologetically sexual and lyrically aggressive, and she took that ball and ran with it.
The tragedy of their story is that they never got to see what they could have become as they matured. Biggie was planning to retire from rapping by 2000 to just manage Junior M.A.F.I.A. full-time. He wanted to be the mogul. Kim was just getting started.
Actionable Insights for Hip-Hop Fans
If you want to truly understand the depth of their artistic connection, you have to go beyond the hits.
- Listen to "Queen Bitch": This is arguably Kim’s best lyrical performance, and you can hear Biggie’s influence in the storytelling and the grit.
- Watch the "Get Money" Video: Pay attention to the styling. It defined the "Mafioso" aesthetic of the mid-90s that influenced everything from fashion to film.
- Check out Kim's 2017 interview with Ebro: If you want the unvarnished truth about the violence and the love, that’s where she lays it all out without the industry gloss.
- Research Junior M.A.F.I.A.'s Conspiracy: It’s the blueprint for the "crew" album. See how Biggie distributed verses to highlight Kim’s unique voice.
Their story is a reminder that the greatest art often comes from the most complicated places. It wasn't perfect, and it certainly wasn't always healthy, but it was real. And in a world of manufactured PR relationships, the raw, messy truth of Kim and Big is why we’re still talking about them thirty years later.