The wait is over: The Queen Bee has officially announced that she's releasing an album. Is hard to believe that it's been nearly 14 years since Lil Kim dropped her last studio album The Naked Truth, and while there have been mixtapes that have been released in the meantime, fans have been waiting for Kim to come out with a new project.
Kim broke the news of her new record to Funkmaster Flex on Hot 97 when she was recently there celebrating the 22nd anniversary of the Notorious B.I.G.'s death. The rapper didn't reveal an official release date, but she says that her upcoming album will be titled Nine. "So, the name of my album is called Nine and there’s a lot of meaning behind that,” said Kim. "God does everything in the right time. He does things at the right time, the right moment."
Of course, fans immediately began to speculate what "nine" could mean. A few noted that Kim's daughter, Royal Reign, was born on June 9; B.I.G. was murdered on March 9; and if you count up all of her records, including mixtapes, this new project will make her ninth album. During her visit with Funk Flex, Kim also spoke about how Biggie influenced her life and how she would like to reunite with all of Junior Mafia to pay homage to the late rap icon.
“If we’re all going to come together as a family again, everybody has to feel like there’s a respect there,” said Kim. “What I would like to see happen in my perfect world is me, the whole Junior M.A.F.I.A., Un [Lance Rivera], Faith [Evans], Ma$e… If Puff would be willing to be a part of what we want to do, it would be amazing.”
It looks like the beef between Kim and Lil Cease had been squashed after he testified against her in her 2005 perjury trial. Meanwhile, Kim released her single "Nasty One" last year and more recently, "Go Awff," yet there is no official word on if they'll be included on Nine.