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    "headline": "Lil’ Kim’s Hard Core turns 30; the Brooklyn rapper’s debut sold 78,000 copies in its first w",
    "description": "Lil' Kim's debut album Hard Core came out on November 12, 1996, sold 78,000 copies in week one and later went double platinum in the US.",
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    "keywords": "Brooklyn, Hard Core, Junior M.A.F.I.A., Lil' Kim, The Notorious B.I.G.",
    "articleBody": "Lil’ Kim’s Hard Core arrived 30 years ago today, on November 12, 1996, and it changed what a woman could say on a rap record. The Brooklyn rapper’s solo debut sold 78,000 copies in its first week, opened at No. 11 on the US albums chart and No. 3 on the R&B/hip-hop albums chart, and eventually earned a double-platinum plaque. Before going solo she was the breakout voice of Junior M.A.F.I.A., whose 1995 album Conspiracy put her on the map. For Hard Core, the Notorious B.I.G. served as executive producer and turned up on four songs. Made at the Hit Factory Most of the album was cut at The Hit Factory in Manhattan across 1995 and 1996. The production credits run long: Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, Stevie J, Ski, Jermaine Dupri, Stretch Armstrong, Nashiem Myrick, Carlos Broady and more. Jay-Z, Lil’ Cease and Puff Daddy appear as guests, and Aaliyah sang uncredited background vocals on “Queen Bitch.” The working title was Queen Bee, the nickname that stuck to her anyway. An early take of “Big Momma Thang” aimed shots at 2Pac and Faith Evans. Biggie disapproved, so the song was redone: Jay-Z’s verse replaced the lines about Evans, and Kim recut the third verse. Why it hit so hard Raunchy sex talk and hardcore street rhymes had long belonged to male rappers. Kim took over both at once, and the promotional push, built on images of her in a bikini surrounded by furs, made sure nobody missed it. Reviewers praised her delivery, and one retrospective album guide summed the record up as “a landmark of bold, hilarious filth.” The singles “No Time” with Puff Daddy, out October 17, 1996: Gold, top 20 on the Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Rap Songs chart “Crush on You” remix, out June 10, 1997: her second straight Rap Songs No. 1, the first time a female rapper had back-to-back chart-toppers there “Not Tonight” Ladies Night remix, out June 30, 1997: No. 6 on the Hot 100, Platinum, and a 1998 Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group That remix put Kim alongside Da Brat, Left Eye, Missy Elliott and radio host Angie Martinez, whose unaired 1996 Tupac Shakur interview is now becoming a Netflix series. The long tail The real story of Hard Core is how long it kept selling. It never spent another week in the top 30 after its debut, yet it reached 1.5 million US copies by June 2000, was certified 2x Platinum on March 14, 2001, and topped five million worldwide by November 2016. In August 2018, almost 22 years after release, it briefly climbed to No. 1 on the iTunes hip-hop/rap albums chart. Do the math and the opening week looks tiny: 78,000 is barely 5 percent of the 1.5 million US copies sold in the album’s first three and a half years. Hard Core landed in a crowded season for New York rap. Mobb Deep’s Hell on Earth turns 30 on November 19, and Brooklyn crew O.G.C.’s Da Storm reached the same milestone earlier this fall. Kim’s second album, The Notorious K.I.M., did not follow until 2000, almost four years after Hard Core. Further reading Wikipedia: Hard Core (Lil' Kim album) Image: Monique Tatum, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. How we work.",
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