Lil’ Kim Possible

Now that Lil’ Kim is locked up in the federal prison over on Arch Street, I kind of figured we were safe from hearing about her for a while.

Silly me. This is America. And so, earlier this week, there was a report that her breast implants could be leaking. This was a non-story of course, especially since Kim said they were fine, so it kind of makes you go, “Hmmm… why did this story come out right now?”

And, of course. Her show, Lil’ Kim: Countdown to Lockdown, premieres tonight. The BET reality show follows Lil’ Kim as she becomes Kimberly Jones, ready to enter into the pokey for her 366 day stay as Inmate No. 56198-054.

The Inquirer’s Rob Watson begins his review of Episode 1 — there are six in all — saying how he doesn’t want to become an angry old man, and promptly resorts to becoming an angry old man:

When the subject of the Junior Mafia comes up in the show, things get crazy. Lil’ Kim was once a member of the Junior Mafia, and JM members dimed her out in court.

All of a sudden, the language gets really bad. There are rapper Ja Rule and a host of other folks kickin’ it all gangsta: “N- this,” “F- that,” “Code of the streets is always not to open up your f- mouth,” “Stop the snitchin’.”

The Junior Mafia thing - well, that is something for Lil’ Cease and what’s left of the JM crew to deal with. But kids are going to be watching this tonight. You only had to read yesterday about the trial of the two men accused of killing Faheem Thomas-Childs to gauge the consequences of “stop the snitchin’.”

Whether the bad words are bleeped out or not, BET is providing yet another avenue for the messages to get through. In fact, the whole JM scene is followed by a girl who can’t be more than 10 or 11 saying she can’t believe her favorite rapper is going to jail. What will she think when she hears the “stop the snitchin’” warning?

Look, Mr. Watson may be right. Maybe the show is bad for kids and sets a bad example and maybe Lil’ Kim is responsible for every murder that goes unsolved. But I can only think of two things when reading these paragraphs: (1) The Inky only needs to bring out this article (and others like it) to answer the question of why younger readers don’t read newspapers and (2) “Get off my lawn!”

Lil’ Kim’s path to pokey [Inky]
Call it a Lil’ Kim news leak [DN]
Photo via Gawker