Out on the Street at 15, Then Rap Royalty

Lil' Kim was born Kimberly Denise Jones in Brooklyn, New York. Encyclopedia.com records that her parents divorced when she was about nine and that she, her mother and her brother then stayed with relatives, sleeping on various couches. Her mother could not raise the children alone, and custody went to her father, a former army sergeant and bus driver, who ran a strict household. The two clashed constantly and counselling did not end the conflict.

Exclaim! describes what followed. After a turbulent period with the father who had been her main carer, she was put out of the home at 15 and lived on the streets. Encyclopedia.com has a slightly different account, saying that she ran away as a young teenager and stayed with boyfriends. Neither article gives dates, and the length of this period is not stated. Exclaim! quotes her as saying that she did what it took to survive and notes that she took odd jobs.

Her turn came through music. She met the rapper Christopher Wallace, known as The Notorious B.I.G., when she was around 16 or 17, depending on the source. One account has her freestyling for him on a street corner, and he was impressed straight away. She left high school and he became her mentor. They later became a couple.

She joined Junior M.A.F.I.A., the Brooklyn rap group whose album Conspiracy, released in 1995, entered the top ten of the Billboard 200. She became its breakout star.

Her solo debut, Hard Core, came out in November 1996. It entered the Billboard 200 at number 11, which Encyclopedia.com calls the highest debut for a female hip-hop artist on that chart at the time, and it went platinum.