Lil Kim Says She Didn’t Approve Heavily Retouched ‘Ebony’ Cover, Shares Original Photo
Lil Kim is one of five covers released by Ebony magazine in celebration for Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary. However, the Bedstuy, Brooklyn rap vet wasn’t too happy with the final “heavily retouched” cover — leading her to accuse the longstanding publication of “sabotage.”
Keith Major, the mag’s Director of Photography, countered Kim’s claims, as he revealed that the “Crush On You” rhymer actually took control of edits. Now the Queen Bee has shared the original photo that she “approved,” although critics say there isn’t much difference between the two photos aside from a few coloring edits.
On Tuesday (Sept. 19), Ebony unveiled Kim’s cover on Instagram with the caption, “There will never be another like @lilkimthequeenbee — she still is and has always been ‘That Bi**h.'”
“If you’ve ever questioned what she was about, all you need to do is listen to her flow on a track like the OG legend she is,” the captioned continues. “In all her glory, Lil Kim graces our cover as only Hip-Hop royalty can.”
Immediately, the comment section filled with admiration, but also backlash about the photoshopping of Kim’s face. Catching wind of the commentary, Kim posted the cover to her IG Story with the overlaid text, “Who is this? Cuz that’s not the photo I approved or any other content they’ve put out.”
She added, “I always told Ebony it looked like a painting but they didn’t wanna listen. They said they love it. It’s the sabotage for me. The funny sh*t about this, is that this is THEIR retoucher!”
However, the respected photographer begged to differ. Major responded to critics in Ebony’s comment section with, “Man, she wanted to be in control of the retouching so this is what we got.”
Lil Kim also shared a post from a “social media manager to the stars,” named @rayeesuh, who wrote, “How about we talk about how your photos exposure was so low we couldn’t even salvage them. At the end of the day it was EBONY’s retouchers who edited the photo. I also heard you got fired after this sh*t. Let’s talk about that, sir.” Kim responded with, “Talk that real sh*t!”
It hasn’t been made clear if Major is still the director of photography or not.
The 49-year-old rapper then reposted the original photo that she and her team claimed to “approve,” which didn’t look too different from what the magazine published. Many began pointing out that the only difference they noticed were “contrast” and “saturation.”
“It’s the same the contrast is just different on the other,” reality star and podcast host Mehgan James commented on The Shade Room, as a photographer also wrote, “As a photographer and expert editor, the saturation and a FEWWWW editing differences are apparent, but this is the exact same photo! Kim, even if the approved [came] out its would stillllll be what it currently is..”
See both images above.
Ebony magazine further released content from the shoot, including one graphic that shows the published photo which fades into Kim actually in motion taking the photos. Many commented that they actually loved the unedited version of her more than the retouched cover.
“When it comes to this Hip-Hop Game, you don’t wanna bumble with the bee and for almost three decades, Lil Kim has continued to show us why,” the pub captioned the post.
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