Lil' Kim And Naturi Naughton Are Fighting (Again) — Here's Who Queen Bee Wanted To Portray Her Instead
The rapper says she hated everything about 2009's 'Notorious', Naughton included.
Instagram Why are Lil' Kim and Naturi Naughton fighting?
That question has been on everyone's mind since the Queen Bee first came for the "Power" actress's neck last week.
Bizarrely, just as rapper 50 Cent took to trolling Naughton with rude memes on both Instagram and Twitter, Lil' Kim let it be widely known that she hated everything about 2009 biopic Notorious, including Naughton's portrayal of her.
Naturi Naughton, 35, first came to prominence in the early 2000s as a member of R&B trio 3LW, later shifting into her current career as an actress.
Lil' Kim, meanwhile, is a woman who needs no introduction. The 44 (or 45, sources differ)-year old rapper, songwriter, actress and model born as Kimberly Denise Jones is a hip hop legend who came into prominence thanks to her inclusion in the hardcore hiphop group Junior M.A.F.I.A. and her relationship with Christopher Wallace, the man better known as Biggie Smalls, The Notorious B.I.G.
From the outside, it just didn't make sense. Why can't these two smart, talented and beautiful women get along? And who would Lil' Kim have wanted to play her instead?
Here are 6 facts explaining the feud between rapper Lil' Kim and actress Naturi Naughton.
1. Lil' Kim says she "hated" the way Naughton portrayed her in Notorious
The feud between Lil' Kim and Naturi Naughton first started all the way back when Naughton was cast as Lil' Kim in Notorious.
To say that Lil' Kim wasn't a fan of the film or Naughton's portrayal of her would be an understatement.
During this 2017 interview with the Breakfast Club, Kim stated firmly, "It did not go down like that."
2. Kim's beef with Naturi may be tied to her feelings for Faith Evans and Violetta Wallace
At the after-party for the VH1 Hip Hop Honors back in 2016, Lil' Kim was reportedly overheard saying, "I don't want to be near Naturi. I don't want her around. I don't want to be in her space."
It's been speculated that Kim is mostly angry with Biggie's widow, R&B singer Faith Evans and mother Violetta Wallace, both of whom were intimately involved in developing the film, a theory which may be supported by Kim's focus on Evans in her conversation with the Breakfast Club.
Additionally, some say Kim "felt slighted when Naughton ... failed to reach out to her when preparing for the role," an accusation Naughton firmly denies.
3. Again, Naughton was well aware of the Queen Bee's opinion of her work
For her part Naughton, seemed to handle the heat as well as one can probably handle heat coming at you from a legend of Lil' Kim's stature.
Asked if she'd seen or talked to Kim since playing her, Naughton said, "Well, I saw her once. I wish, you know, there was more comraderie at the time."
"It's hard when it's yourself," she expanded, generously accounting for Kim's less than stellar reception.
4. Just last week, Lil' Kim doubled down on her distaste for the casting choice
During a guest appearance on Hollywood Unlocked [Uncensored], hosts Jason Lee, Melyssa Ford and DJ Damage delved further into the Notorious drama.
"I would never have picked her," Kim said. "Never ever ever. She has nothing in common with me. Nothing. Like, we have nothing in common. No, seriously ... And I don’t like the way she’s been disrespectful about it. I wasn’t even like, basically blaming her, but she did, like, a whole documentary coming at me, and I'm like what the heck is this?"
The "documentary" she referred to was this episode of TV One's "Uncensored", in which Naughton refuted claims she never reach out to Lil' Kim while Notorious was in production.
"I would never take on the role of a real, live person that is alive and well," Naughton says, "and not try to speak with them and reach out."
5. Naughton responded to Kim's latest comments ... by posting Biggie lyrics
The shade! This time around, Naughton took to Instagram, posted a since-expired story that simply said, "In the words of #BiggieSmalls …'Mo Money, Mo Problems' [shrug emoji]."
Many people viewed the post as a direct hit on Lil' Kim.
6. Which actress did Lil' Kim want to portray her instead?
Lil' Kim told Hollywood Unlocked she felt Teyana Taylor nailed it when she paid the Queen homage at the 2016 VH1 Hip Hop Honors.
And while some clapped back at Kim on social media, saying she'd originally wanted lighter skinned Christina Milian to portray her at the time, Kim shot that rumor down a decade ago, asserting she would have preferred to cast an unknown actress who shared her Brooklyn roots.
"That’s not the truth," she said back in 2009. "Christina Milian is a real good friend of mine and she happened to be on the phone with me at the time and we talked, you know what I mean?
"[The] whole point and the matter of the fact [is that] I should’ve got to pick the girl that played me. And not necessarily Christina Milian or whoever else, but she could’ve damn sure played it better than that girl and I know that because Christina is my friend. But at the end of the day, that’s not who I would’ve picked. I wouldn’t have picked Chrisitina Milian to be honest with you. I wouldn’t have picked a known actress.
"I would’ve went to Brooklyn [and] had a casting call to be honest with you. Because there is nobody who could’ve pulled off that Lil’ Kim-Brooklyn feeling besides a Brooklyn girl who grew up in Brooklyn and knows what that’s like. That’s what I would’ve done."
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, and photographer whose work has appeared in People, Teen Vogue, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and more. She is also the author of The Uprising series. For more information about Bernadette Giacomazzo, click here.