Lil Kim Addresses Criticism Over Recent Magazine Cover, Claims She Did Not Approve The Published Image: ‘It’s The Sabotage For Me’ 

Lil Kim Addresses Criticism Over Recent Magazine Cover, Claims She Did Not Approve The Published Image: ‘It’s The Sabotage For Me’ 

Lil Kim has one question when it comes to her latest Ebony Magazine cover – “Who is this?”

With 2023 marking the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, Ebony Magazine decided to have legends of the culture grace its cover. However, when the publication unveiled its latest issue, many people did not take well to the heavily edited shot of Lil Kim.

The criticism surrounding the now-viral image prompted the photographer responsible for the cover, Keith Major, to speak out and defend himself against the backlash. On Tuesday (Sept. 19) Major replied to someone asking who took the photo in the comment section of The Shade Room and claimed:

“Man, she wanted to be in control of the retouching so this is what we got.” 

After having the blame redirected toward her, Lil Kim quickly chimed in with a rebuttal and said:

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

The Queen Bee can clearly count on her loyal fans and team to have her back as many wasted no time speaking out on her behalf. Lil Kim shared lots of comments from her supporters, including one from social media personality Rolling Ray that slammed Major.

“@keithmajor you messy for this comment! & now I see why she has yet to promote it. When working for top iconic people you never speak how you just did. The photo is actually amazing!!! At her level I don’t blame her for wanting to be in control of how she’s portrayed. & you don’t know who she knows! Ebony [Mag] ain’t been this hot in years! She just woke ya’ll up from the dead & this is the thanks she gets! Wow.”

Someone associated with Lil Kim’s team also backed up the rapper’s claim by adding:

“For the record we definitely didn’t [choose] that other flick.” 

Ebony Magazine has stayed fairly quiet as the controversy unfolds and still has the cover photo on its social media accounts. Lil Kim, on the other hand, has yet to promote the image, despite having a previous cover photo from a different publication shared on her Instagram page.

See more responses below: 

What are your thoughts on the cover photo selected of Lil Kim? Tell us in the comments! 

[VIA]