Lil’ Kim’s hip-hop swagger rivaled the biggest male rappers of her time, while her sexual bravado would have made Madonna blush. The self-anointed Queen Bee rapped her way to music history with the album Hard Core (1996) and, along with Christopher Wallace – a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G. – formed one of the most prolific hip-hop groups of all time – the Junior M.A.F.I.A. Kim’s life was also full of turmoil, including the death of her mentor and lover Wallace in 1997, and her 2005 arrest for conspiracy and perjury for lying to a grand jury, where she was sentenced to one year and one day in jail.
