The Hip Hop industry throughout its history has birthed a plethora of beauty trends that are embedded in artistry, self-expression, individualism and experimentation. As a result, Hip Hop’s contribution to the beauty industry is not only undeniable but has withstood the test of time and in its evolutions continues to celebrate and honour Black culture.
When I think of memorable beauty moments in Hip Hip, there are many celebs that come to mind, but in this moment there’s one distinct person that stands out, and that is rapper Lil Kim. Throughout her career Lil Kim’s style has played a crucial role in not only reshaping beauty trends in street wear and luxury fashion runways but her style has played a pivotal role in redefining beauty standards.
Lil' Kim's look was a reflection of her individuality and self-expression. The artist's style also allowed her to cement herself within a male-dominated industry.
Nzingha, a celebrity makeup artist and one of Lil Kim’s style curators, shares how hostile the Hip Hop industry was towards women. During her conversation with Instyle magazine, Nzingha also pointed out how female rappers like Queen Latifah and MC Lyte embraced aesthetics that blended in where as Lil Kim on the other hand, created a unique space for other rappers, like Missy Elliot, Foxy Brown, Trina, Lauryn Hill, Nicki Minaj, Meg Thee Stallion and Cardi B to be expressive and experiment with beauty and fashion.
"You have to understand how the era was — most of the girls at the time were wearing big overalls and Timberlands, Queen Latifah had to address it in one of her songs 'U.N.I.T.Y.,' asking, 'Who you callin' a bitch?' There was so much aggression towards women that the women became aggressive. They felt like they had to meet that fire with fire. But Kim and the other girls came in and brought water”.
A prime example of Lil Kim’s undeniable influence in beauty and fashion was the artists logo
wigs. In 2001, Lil Kim’s hair stylist Dionne Alexander created a turquoise blue wig with the logo of luxury brand Chanel printed on the bang. The look was created for Lighter’s Up rapper’s magazine cover for the Manhattan File. In the same year, Lil Kim wore another logo inspired wig. This time the rapper sported a platinum blonde wig with the Versace Greek keys while attending the Versace 2001 Spring/Summer couture fashion show.
In 2020 Dionne Alexander told Complex magazine that the logos on the wigs were created by cutting out the designs on tracing paper and filling them in with a Marker.
“I went to the arts and crafts store, I purchased some thick tracing paper, and I cut out the Chanel logo and then I used a magic marker to put it on the wig. That’s my secret”.
Decades later, Lil Kim's contribution to fashion and beauty continues to prevail. Not only have we seen rappers like Cardi B, Nicki Minaj and Meg Thee Stallion redefine mainstream beauty standards, but we've also seen their own iterations of the logo wig. Celeb stylists like Tokyo Stylez and Alfred Lewis have also drawn inspiration from Dionne Alexander and created modern iterations of Lil Kim's Logo wigs. Alfred Lewis, who is an American hairstylist and hair artist has also recently released a hair painting guide titled, From Canvas to Tresses: A Beginners Guide to Hair Painting. The step-by-step guide is said to provide comprehensive tips to hair painting.
If this isn't enough evidence that Lil Kim is indeed the blueprint in both fashion and beauty then I don't know what is...
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