Lil Kim Refutes Claim She Had Creative Control Over Ebony Magazine Cover Photo

BYCole Blake1153 Views
Link Copied to Clipboard!
Lovers & Friends Music Festival
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - MAY 06: (EDITORS NOTE: Image contains profanity.) Lil' Kim performs during the Lovers & Friends music festival at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds on May 06, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Candice Ward/Getty Images)
Lil Kim says she didn't have final say over the image used for her Ebony cover.

Lil Kim says that she did not approve of the photo used for her recent Ebony Magazine cover story, refuting the photographer's claim that she had full creative control over the retouching. Kim addressed the situation in a series of posts on social media, Tuesday.

“Who is this? Cuz that’s not the photo I approved or any other content they’ve put out,” Lil Kim captioned the cover image. “I always told Ebony it looked like a painting but they didn’t wanna listen. They said they love it. It’s the sabotage for me. The funny shit about this, is that this is THEIR retoucher!”

Lil Kim At Lovers & Friends Festival

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - MAY 06: Lil' Kim performs during the Lovers & Friends music festival at the Las. Vegas Festival Grounds on May 06, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Candice Ward/Getty Images)

The post comes after the magazine’s photography director, Keith Major, claimed that Kim had control over the retouching in a comment on Instagram. “Man, she wanted to be in control of the retouching so this is what we got,” he commented on the cover on Instagram. Kim later shared a response from the Instagram user @rayeesuh, who wrote: “How about we talk about how your photos exposure was so low we couldn’t even salvage them. At the end of the day it was EBONY’s retouchers who edited the photo. I also heard you. got fired after this shit. Let’s talk about that, sir.” Kim further added: “Talk that real shit."

Lil Kim Fires Back At Ebony

Image via Instagram @lilkimthequeenbee

Kim is just one of several hip-hop legends the magazine has featured in honor of the 50th anniversary of the genre. Others include Busta Rhymes, 50 Cent, Swizz Beatz, and Rick Ross. For their post about Kim, the outlet wrote: “[Lil Kim] shows up on our cover on her own time and in her own way. Maximizing her agency as a trendsetting and Hip Hop legend on the terms she sets. That’s just how a Queen Bee does it—shall she proceed?”

[Via]

About The Author
Cole Blake is a current staff writer at HotNewHipHop based out of New York City. He began writing for the site as an intern back in 2018 while finishing his B.A. in Journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s covered a number of breaking stories for HNHH. These include the ongoing YSL RICO trial, the allegations surrounding Diddy, and much more. His work also extends outside of hip-hop, having written extensively about a myriad of topics including politics, sports, and pop culture. He’s attended several music festivals to provide coverage for the site as well, such as Rolling Loud and Governors Ball.
...