Picture it, Thanksgiving season 1996. Lil’ Kim, who had just made her legendary debut as one of the main lyricists in Junior M.A.F.I.A. with their 1995 debut album Conspiracy, dropped her infamous debut album Hard Core. I had just started my junior year in high school. Lil’ Kim wasn’t really on my radar outside of showing up for the occasional Notorious B.I.G. song. No Time was playing in rotation on Rap City, but I always flipped. I wasn’t that caught up in her, nor Jay-Z or Puffy Combs, so the hype rolled off my shoulders like salt in the wind.
When school came back in session from Christmas break, it was impossible not to know who she was. Every red blooded American teenaged dude at my high school had her album cover taped to the inside of their lockers. Everybody was talking about how freaky Lil’ Kim got down on the album, which coincided with the love it or hate it scantily clad pose spread eagle in a squat pose Lil’ Kim adorned for the album. All the guys were expecting chicks to emulate that type of attitude; being in high school the sexual expectations that album created on what dudes were expecting of chicks barely getting used to having regular periods was crazy. For that alone, I casted Lil’ Kim off to the sands of scorn, refusing to pay her dust.
Fast forward to my sophomore year in college. I was kicking back at my homegirl Danni’s pad, discussing the intricacies and frustrations of dating life when you’re stuck on a campus in the middle of nowhere without a car and the sexual frustrations that come along with that. I can’t remember exactly what I said but Danni stopped, frantically went through her albums, and handed me Lil’ Kim’s Hard Core. At that point Lil’ Kim had released her second album nobody was checking for, so I wasn’t interested. She insisted and told me to listen to the entire thing and come back and parlay. Against my better judgement, I did.
I’m forever grateful to that chick for doing that. Hard Core changed my college life.
Despite the controversy over its release for being sexually explicit, and rightfully so, Hard Core is not just a Lil’ Kim manual on how to blow backs out or give fellatio. Hard Core is a live, uncensored, and unadulterated manifesto on sexual freedom for the ladies. That’s right. A perfectly uncompromised zero damns given statement on relationship expectations; from janky jump offs, odd one night stands, short term flings, and long term love affairs Hard Core tells no lies breaking down a woman’s role to getting the best and not rolling over to bullshit.
Millie Jackson couldn’t have dropped a gem like this album, and that’s saying a mouthful.
Don’t get it twisted, Lil’ Kim is in the streets getting her paper while she keeping it real in the field. She’s cool if a man wants to be generous but she got her own land, crib, cars, etc. by her own rotation, making her no one’s whore. Having said that, by her own admission on the album she is high maintenance in relationships because her quality of life is exceptional, and she will accept nothing less. Some would call that gold digging or whoring. Lil’ Kim is neither.
If you listen closely to the gems she’s dropping she is telling you that chicks should get the best and have No Time for fake ones. Stingy dudes will use them in and out the bedroom with lackluster results. Above all, any sexual insecurities a chick may have can be overcome with confidence, being honest about what they like and don’t like, and being brave enough to demand their partner delivers. While Millie Jackson was the first I can remember than discussed chicks getting oral sex in the classic All The Way Lover, Lil’ Kim took it ten steps forward being the first female lyricist on record discussing women, including herself, having a tremendous amount of orgasms or its game over. Please her and she will reciprocate, because she paid the cost working out being scared of a few things to be the boss in the bedroom, you feel me? She is sexually uninhibited, so you have to come correct or get played.
Filled with a roster of cameos, most notably affiliates from Junior M.A.F.I.A., Hard Core doesn’t have but one commercial hit on the album, Crush On You, which is one of two tame cuts on the album (and the album version is not the music video version as Lil’ Kim is not on track oddly enough). Queen Bitch is the words of wisdom sex talk you wish the cool aunt in the family gave you over sipping on wine coolers. Not Tonight goes hard in the paint; Lil’ Kim airing out terrible past lovers that can only get at her if their head game is strong features some great one liners like ‘if sex was record sales you would be double glass’ as a description for bad sex just gives life. The exceptional We Don’t Need It and its haunting chorus demanding good head from both the female and male perspective (with a verse or two from Lil’ Cease) is one of those songs that is a theme song depending on where your mind is at.
Hard Core is the mythological grown folks album from a woman’s point of view.
The only thing I didn’t like about the album was the skit Take It with Notorious B.I.G. His skits dealing with Lil’ Kim are always rude, obnoxious, and disrespectful. I have not forgotten his skit on another album where he proudly proclaims taking a dump on her. Their tumultuous relationship is a point of legend at this point, and these skits did not age well for all involved.
Listen to this album. It’s a sexual revolution and a half.
