{"id":452159,"date":"2026-05-30T04:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T04:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/452159\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T04:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T04:13:09","slug":"lil-kim-review-formidable-rap-legend-delivers-mostly-vibes-but-the-crowd-is-here-for-it-vivid-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/452159\/","title":{"rendered":"Lil\u2019 Kim review \u2013 formidable rap legend delivers mostly vibes, but the crowd is here for it | Vivid festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of all the acts announced on this year\u2019s Vivid Sydney<\/a> lineup, Lil\u2019 Kim jumped off the poster. The New York rapper\u2019s return, 15 years after her last Australian appearance at the Winterbeatz festival, was framed as a celebration of her 1996 debut Hard Core and its 2000 follow-up The Notorious K.I.M.. The tour artwork, lifted straight from the Hard Core cover, preserves her forever in her breakout moment.<\/p>\n

In hip-hop\u2019s canon, both albums more than justify the gloss of a nostalgia lap under the polished banners of Vivid and Melbourne\u2019s Rising festival. Shaped under the mentorship of The Notorious B.I.G., Hard Core was swaggering and provocatively explicit, setting a blueprint that The Notorious K.I.M. refined with slicker pop production. While the next 25 years brought peaks and setbacks, that blueprint held, tracing a lineage through Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion and Doechii. Without Big Momma Thang and How Many Licks?, there might be no WAP.<\/p>\n

A mood of giddy nostalgia fills Carriageworks in the hours before Lil\u2019 Kim takes the stage. The crowd is diverse, dressed to party and skewing younger than expected \u2013 some in Lil\u2019 Kim merch, others channelling her fluorescent wigs. In the men\u2019s bathroom, a fan at the urinal conducts a live poll of favourite Lil\u2019 Kim songs.<\/p>\n

Outside, Emma, 37, has travelled from Moree with friends. \u201cHow Many Licks? \u2013 that\u2019s my song,\u201d she says. Willy, 26, immaculate in head-to-toe black, credits Lil\u2019 Kim with \u201cputting me on to female rap\u201d, despite being \u201clike, 11\u201d when she last toured.<\/p>\n

Angelina, 19, grew up immersed in the 90s. \u201cMy mum had me very young, and she\u2019d always play 2Pac, Lil\u2019 Kim, Nicki Minaj, Biggie \u2013 all of that \u2013 in the car and cleaning the house. I grew up on this music.\u201d She sees Lil\u2019 Kim as both a fashion icon and a symbol of confident sexuality: \u201cA lot of women don\u2019t have that opportunity in other parts of the world.\u201d With her mum stuck at work, she\u2019s keeping her updated with videos from the night.<\/p>\n

Inside the main hall, Barkaa whips up a rapturous response from a tightly packed front section. The Malyangapa and Barkindji rapper<\/a> balances political fire and a pinch-me sense of occasion, speaking for many in the room as she recalls bumping Hard Core through her headphones as a kid.<\/p>\n

Between hard-hitting songs like We Up and For My Tittas \u2013 performed over the beat from Dr Dre\u2019s What\u2019s The Difference \u2013 her banter is rousing. \u201cThey said I wouldn\u2019t be shit \u2013 look at me, motherfuckers,\u201d she declares, drawing a huge, cathartic cheer.<\/p>\n

Lil\u2019 Kim\u2019s arrival onstage is preceded by a 15-minute, R&B superclub-style DJ set, which confirms the crowd is ready to party without judgment. When she finally appears in her first leopard-print ensemble, it\u2019s on a barebones stage elevated mostly by the venue\u2019s scale and lighting. Flanked by four hardworking dancers and two towering bodyguards off to each side, it quickly becomes clear the night will be more about vibes than tightly delivered raps.<\/p>\n

Far from the \u201csupreme bitch\u201d persona of Hard Core \u2013 or even her once-spiky feud with Nicki Minaj \u2013 Lil\u2019 Kim delivers platitudes and gushing crowd work (her first words are \u201cI love you, Sydney\u201d), often at the expense of the songs. Stone-cold classics flash by in heavily truncated form, with Kim dipping in and out over sturdy backing tracks. Though billed as a celebration of her first two albums, the setlist zigzags across her catalogue like any standard tour stop \u2013 much to the crowd\u2019s satisfaction.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a fun run through How Many Licks? and a blink-and-you-miss-it Not Tonight (Ladies Night Remix), complete with a tribute to Lisa \u201cLeft Eye\u201d Lopes. The energy noticeably stalls whenever the charisma-free Tayy Brown \u2013 introduced as her husband \u2013 appears on stage to sing and rap forgettably, eating into already limited time.<\/p>\n

Fleeting though they are, highlights include a radio-style segment where she briefly raps along to Biggie\u2019s Juicy, delivering a jolt of genuine feeling, while Lighters Up lands with more spirit than most of the set. By the time the DJ is farewelling the crowd with a call to buy some merch, Lil\u2019 Kim\u2019s actual stage time barely scrapes an hour \u2013 a thin return on a ticket north of $100.<\/p>\n

While an eye-catching booking, you\u2019d be hard-pressed to call this a show befitting such a formidable hip-hop legacy. But the crowd\u2019s energy \u2013 and absolute faith in the Queen Bee \u2013 at least make it memorable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of all the acts announced on this year\u2019s Vivid Sydney lineup, Lil\u2019 Kim jumped off the poster. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-452159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}