The Naked Truth

by

Lil' Kim

Edit

Queen Bee put it down on this one, no question. The entire album bangs from start to finish. The beats are hot, her lyrics are on point and she has great guest appearences from The Game, Bun B(the legend), Snoop, Twista and T.I.P.. The skits are hilarious thanks to Money Mike and the album flows very well. As far as the 5mics rating goes, The Source has lost so much creditibility, that a rating from them isnt worth the paper that its printed on. So it's basically up to the consumer to decide.

As far as being called a certified "Classic," like I said only time will tell. A Classic album is an album that you can play 5 to 10yrs from now and still be just as good if not better than when you first heard it. Thats a true definition of a "Classic." The word classic gets thrown around in this industry so much, people have really lost the true meaning of the word. Just because an album has more than 5 tracks that are actually good, doesnt make it a "classic." I think that the hip hop consumer hasn't really heard a truly good album is so long, that we latch onto the first thing that comes along.(i.e. Common's "Be")

But all in all it is definetly a hot album, clearly one of the best albums of the year. However, its still very early to calling it a "Classic."

The Naked Truth is Lil' Kim's 4 th album, which was released in September of 2005. Surprisingly, this album is not completely filled with lyrics of sex, but we're talking about Lil' Kim so of course there's still quite a few cuts that offer typical Kim. She lacks creativity and inspiration. In her track "Quiet" she mimics Eminem's style and on some cuts she tries to sing.

If you like skits, Kim's got too many to count, they seem to be there to fill the time space required for her album. Lil' Kim's cut "Gimme That" is a weak effort as a follow-up to "Magic Stick". She adds guest appearances by Snoop and TI, but this still doesn't help her album. " Lighters Up" she takes a stab trying to sound socially conscious on a reggae beat. In "Spell Check," Lil' Kim states that she's the baddest in the game but yet she recycles someone else's lyrics, of course it's Biggie's. If she's the baddest, then she shouldn't need to reprocess someone else's material/style, Bigger or Eminem.

This album was recorded during the turmoil of her perjury trial. There's no attempt of remorse or to justify her actions but what she has done is to point the blame on others. Overall, this album is not her best. I honestly appreciate the overtly more sexual Kim than who she is trying to portray in this album.

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