title: Vince Carter

text: On August 24, 2018, Carter signed with the Atlanta Hawks. In his debut for the Hawks on October 17, 2018, Carter started at forward and scored 12 points in a 126–107 loss to the New York Knicks, becoming the second oldest player in NBA history to start a season opener at 41 years and 264 days old. Only Robert Parish (42 years and 65 days old) was an older opening-night NBA starter than Carter. On November 21, he scored 14 points off the bench in a 124–108 loss to the Toronto Raptors, and became the 22nd player in NBA history to reach 25,000 career points. The milestone moment, which happened in the final seconds of the game, was made even more memorable for coming via a slam dunk and also for coming against his original team who joined in congratulating him on the court. On December 29, he scored an equal team-high 21 points in 111–108 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was his first game with 20 points for Atlanta and became the oldest player in history to lead or tie for the team lead in scoring. He also became the oldest player in NBA history to score 20+ points at 41 years and 337 days old, breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's record by 6 days. On February 7, 2019, against the Raptors, Carter passed Jerry West for 21st on the NBA's all-time scoring list. On March 1, 2019, he logged the second-most minutes for the Hawks in a 168–161 quadruple-overtime loss to the Chicago Bulls. At 42, Carter became the oldest player in NBA history to play at least 45 minutes in a game. On March 4, he scored 21 points, all on 3-pointers, in a 114–113 loss to the Miami Heat. He thus surpassed Reggie Miller for 20th on the all-time scoring list, passed Jamal Crawford for sixth on the all-time 3-point field goals made list, became the oldest player to shoot seven 3-pointers, and broke his own record of being the oldest player to score 20+ points in a game at 42 years old. On March 31, against the Milwaukee Bucks, Carter passed Karl Malone for fifth place on the all-time games played list with his 1,477th game.


title: Vince Carter

text: In June 2019, Carter stated that he was planning to retire at the end of the 2019-20 NBA season. On September 20, 2019, Carter re-signed with the Hawks and played his first game on October 24, 2019, making his 22nd season official. Four of Carter's teammates were born after he was drafted in 1998. On December 10, 2019, he became the fifth player in NBA history to play at least 1,500 games. On January 4, 2020, during a 116–111 win over the Indiana Pacers, Carter became the only player in NBA history to have played in four different decades. On January 22, 2020, Carter moved past Alex English for 19th on the NBA all-time scoring list. On January 31, 2020, Carter moved up to 3rd place in all-time NBA games played with 1,523 passing Dirk Nowitzki in the process. On March 11, 2020, against the New York Knicks, Carter returned to the floor in the final seconds of the game, making a three-pointer in what would be his final game. The NBA suspended the season the same day due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Carter officially announced his retirement from the NBA on June 25, 2020, over a month before the scheduled resumption of play on July 30, where the Hawks had not been invited to compete.


title: Vince Carter

text: Carter played for head coach Kelvin Sampson on the United States men's national under-19 team at the 1995 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup in Athens. He and Samaki Walker tied for the team lead in blocks in the team's eight games.


title: Vince Carter

text: During the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Carter led the U.S. in scoring averaging 14.8 points a game. He also performed one of the most memorable dunks of his career when he jumped over French center Frédéric Weis. Teammate Jason Kidd said "It was one of the best plays I've ever seen." The French media later dubbed it ""le dunk de la mort"" ("the Dunk of Death"). The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal that year. Carter admitted he channeled his frustrations in his personal life and Tracy McGrady leaving the Raptors before the Olympics.


title: Vince Carter

text: Carter replaced Kobe Bryant on the USA roster for the 2003 FIBA Americas Tournament while Bryant was undergoing surgeries on his knee and shoulder. He wore Bryant's jersey number 8. Bryant was supposed to take his spot back in time for the 2004 Olympics, but would later withdraw due to allegations of sexual assault. Carter was offered the Olympic spot but chose instead to take time off during the summer to rest and heal, as well as to get married.


title: Vince Carter

text: Carter opened a restaurant named for himself in Daytona Beach in 2010. His mother operated the restaurant. They sold it in January 2017 for $4.3 million (equivalent to $ million in ).


title: Vince Carter

text: Carter signed a sponsorship deal with Puma prior to his first NBA season, and his first signature shoe, the Puma Vinsanity, was released. However Carter broke his contract with Puma prematurely, citing the "shoes were hurting his feet" and played out the rest of the 1999-2000 NBA season in various brands. Prior to the 2000 Summer Olympics, Carter signed with Nike as a 'signature athlete' and his first signature Nike Shox shoe, a Nike Shox BB4 PE, debuted and released publicly in 2000 to coincide with the Olympic games. Nike released five other signature Shox models bearing Carter's initials. During his final season, Nike commemorated Carter's 22 year NBA career by publicly re-releasing his first Nike signature shoe, the Shox BB4.


title: Vince Carter

text: On September 17, 2020, ESPN announced that Carter had signed a multi-year contract with them, serving as an NBA and college basketball analyst.


title: Vince Carter

text: Carter is the only player in NBA history to appear in a game in four different decades. He is one of six players in NBA history to average at least 20 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists per game in 10 straight seasons. He is also one of six players in league history to record 24,000 points, 6,000 rebounds, 2,500 assists, 1,000 steals and 1,000 3-point field goals.


title: Vince Carter

text: Carter married Ellen Rucker, a chiropractor, in July 2004; the couple divorced in 2006. They have one daughter together. Carter is now married to Sondi Carter, an NASM trainer. They have a son and a daughter.


title: Vince Carter

text: Carter has donated to his high school, Mainland High School, and he established charitable foundation, The Embassy of Hope, upon being drafted into the NBA in 1998. On February 3, 2007, a statue of Carter was unveiled at Mainland.


title: Vince Carter

text: Carter visited with the Duquesne University men's basketball team in Pittsburgh as a show of support after five of its players were shot in September 2006.


title: Vince Carter

text: Carter is also the second cousin of Tracy McGrady, who is a basketball player, through Carter's step-great-grandfather. They were teammates with the Raptors in 1998–2000. Both players were unaware of the relation until a family reunion in 1997.


title: Roguelike

text: Roguelike (or rogue-like) is a subgenre of role-playing computer games traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player character. Most roguelikes are based on a high fantasy narrative, reflecting their influence from tabletop role playing games such as "Dungeons & Dragons".


title: Roguelike

text: Though "Beneath Apple Manor" predates it, the 1980 game "Rogue", which is an ASCII based game that runs in terminal or terminal emulator, is considered the forerunner and the namesake of the genre, with derivative games mirroring "Rogue"s character- or sprite-based graphics. These games were popularized among college students and computer programmers of the 1980s and 1990s, leading to hundreds of variants. Some of the better-known variants include "Hack", "NetHack", "Ancient Domains of Mystery", "Moria", "Angband", "Tales of Maj'Eyal", and "Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup". The Japanese series of "Mystery Dungeon" games by Chunsoft, inspired by "Rogue", also fall within the concept of roguelike games.


title: Roguelike

text: The exact definition of a roguelike game remains a point of debate in the video game community. A "Berlin Interpretation" drafted in 2008 defined a number of high- and low-value factors that distinguished the "pure" roguelike games "Rogue", "NetHack" and "Angband" from edge cases like "Diablo". Since then, with more powerful home computers and gaming systems and the rapid growth of indie video game development, several new "roguelikes" have appeared, with some but not all of these high-value factors, nominally the use of procedural generation and permadeath, while often incorporating other gameplay genres, thematic elements, and graphical styles; common examples of these include "Spelunky", "", "The Binding of Isaac", "Slay the Spire" and "Hades". To distinguish these from traditional roguelikes, such games may be referred to as "rogue-lite" or "roguelike-like".


title: Roguelike

text: The term "roguelike" came from Usenet newsgroups around 1993, as this was the principal channel the players of roguelike games of that period were using to discuss these games, as well as what the developers used to announce new releases and even distribute the game's source code in some cases. With several individual groups for each game, it was suggested that with rising popularity of "Rogue", "Hack", "Moria", and "Angband", all which shared common elements, that the groups be consolidated under an umbrella term to facilitate cross-game discussion. Debate among users of these groups ensued to try to find an encapsulating term that described the common elements, starting with codice_1, but after three weeks of discussion, codice_2, based on "Rogue" being the oldest of these types of games, was picked as "the least of all available evils". By the time it was suggested that a group be created to discuss the development of these kind of games in 1998, the "roguelike" term was already established within the community. This usage parallels that of "Doom clone", a term used in 1990s that later evolved into more generic "first-person shooter".


title: Roguelike

text: Drawing from the concepts of tabletop role-playing games such as "Dungeons & Dragons", nearly all roguelikes give the player control of a character, which they may customize by selecting a class, race, and gender, and adjusting attributes points and skills. At the start of the game, the character is placed at the top-most level of a dungeon, with basic equipment such as a simple weapon, armor, torches, and food. Following along the role-playing concept of a dungeon crawl, the player moves the character through the dungeon, collecting treasure which can include new weapons, armours, magical devices, potions, scrolls, food, and money, while having to fight monsters that roam the dungeon. Most combat is performed simply by attempting to move the character into the same space as the monster. The game then calculates the damage that the character and monster deal. Other types of attacks, such as firing an arrow or performing an offensive magic spell, can often be performed as well.


title: Roguelike

text: Defeating monsters earns the character experience points, and after earning enough points, the character will gain an experience level, improving their hit points, magic capability, and other attributes. Monsters may drop treasure to be looted. The character dies if they lose all their hit points. As most roguelikes feature the concept of permadeath, this represents the end of the game, and the player will need to restart the game with a newly made character. Roguelikes are nearly always turn-based, with the game only reacting when the player makes an action with the character. This allows players to evaluate a difficult situation, such as being cornered by several monsters, at their own pace and determine the best strategy.


title: Roguelike

text: The player generally has to explore the dungeon to reveal its contents, similar to a fog of war. Many roguelikes include visibility elements, such as a torch to provide illumination to see monsters in nearby squares, or line of sight to limit which monsters are visible from the player's position. Dungeons tend to be connected by stairs; lower dungeon levels generally are more difficult than higher ones, so that an underdeveloped character will have difficulty progressing too fast. Dungeon levels and the population of monsters and treasure within them are generated randomly using procedural generation, so no game is the same on subsequent playthroughs. Most roguelikes have an ultimate goal of either claiming an item located at the deepest level of the dungeon, or defeating a specific monster that lives on that level. Typical roguelikes assess the player's performance at the end of the game through a score based on the amount of treasure, money, experience earned, and how fast the player finished the game, if they managed to do so. The score is displayed in a ranked scoreboard to compare the player's performance on successive runs.


title: Roguelike

text: What gameplay elements explicitly define a "roguelike" game remains a point of debate within the video game community. There is broad agreement that roguelike games incorporate gameplay elements popularized by the text-based game "Rogue" (1980), which bore out many variations due to its success; As of 2015, several hundred games claiming to be roguelikes were available through the Steam game catalog, and the user-run wiki RogueBasin tracks hundreds of roguelikes and their development.


title: Roguelike

text: Some players and developers sought a more narrow definition for "roguelike" as variations on "Rogue" introduced new concepts or eschewed other principles that they felt moved the games away from the flavor of what "Rogue" was. At the International Roguelike Development Conference 2008 held in Berlin, Germany, players and developers established a definition for roguelikes known as the "Berlin Interpretation". The Berlin Interpretation set out a set of high-value and low-value factors, basing these lists on five canon roguelike games: "ADOM", "Angband", "Linley's Dungeon Crawl", "NetHack", and "Rogue". The Interpretation was designed to determine "how roguelike a game is", noting that missing a factor does not eliminate a game from being a roguelike, nor does possessing the features make a game roguelike. John Harris of "Game Set Watch" exemplified this by using these criteria to numerically score some seemingly roguelike games; "Linley's Dungeon Crawl" and "NetHack" scored highest, earning 57.5 points of 60 available based on the Interpretation, while "Toe Jam & Earl" and "Diablo", games commonly compared to roguelikes, earned only about half of the points.


title: Roguelike

text: Though this is not addressed by the Berlin Interpretation, roguelikes are generally single-player games. On multi-user systems, leaderboards are often shared between players. Some roguelikes allow traces of former player characters to appear in later game sessions in the form of ghosts or grave markings. Some games such as NetHack even have the player's former characters reappear as enemies within the dungeon. Multi-player turn-based derivatives such as "TomeNET", "MAngband", and "Crossfire" do exist and are playable online.


title: Roguelike

text: Early roguelikes were developed to be played on text-based user interfaces, commonly UNIX-based computer mainframes and terminals used at colleges and universities before transitioning to personal computers. Games used a mix of ASCII or ANSI characters to visually represent elements of the dungeon levels, creatures, and items on the level as in ASCII art. These games typically included one or two text lines presenting the player's current status at the bottom of the screen, and text-based menu screens to manage inventory, statistics, and other details.


title: Roguelike

text: The player's character was nearly always represented by the codice_3 character across text-based roguelikes, which had been chosen by the developers of "Rogue" to stand for "where you're at". Other common examples would include codice_4 for monetary treasure and codice_5 for a dragon. Later games would take advantage of colour-based text graphics to increase the variation of creature types, such as a red codice_5 for a red dragon that would shoot fire, while a green codice_5 could indicate a green dragon that would shoot acid. Players would use the keyboard, using one keypress to enter a command. Sociologist Mark R. Johnson described these commonality of symbols and glyphs as semiotic codes that gave an "aesthetic construction of nostalgia" by "depicting textual symbols as aesthetic forms in their own right" and consistency across multiple roguelikes.


title: Roguelike

text: With modern computer systems, users developed alternate means of displaying the game, such as graphical tilesets and Isometric-based graphical front ends, as well as interfaces that took advantage of keyboard and mouse UI controls, but otherwise still kept to the core tile-based gameplay.


title: Roguelike

text: As computers offered more advanced user interfaces, such as windows and point-and-click menus, many traditional roguelikes were modified to include support for having multiple windows. This was useful to not only show the character-based dungeon, but details on the character's inventory, the monster they were in battle with, and other status messages, in separate windows. Having access to multiple windows also allowed having menus to complete more complex commands. More recent examples of roguelikes that have stayed with ASCII art-based displays include "Cogmind" (2017) and "" (2013).


title: Roguelike

text: With computers and video game consoles capable of more advanced graphics and gameplay, numerous games have emerged that are loosely based on the classic roguelike design but diverge in one or more features. Many of these games use the concepts of procedurally generated maps and permadeath, while moving away from tile-based movement and turn-based gameplay, often using another gameplay genre such as action games or platformers. Other titles deriving from roguelike games are based on the observation that the traditional roguelikes are difficult with a steep learning curve, and a player may never complete these games over numerous play sessions, making these titles difficult to sell to a broader audience. These new games would include elements to reduce the difficulty as to draw in a larger audience.


title: Roguelike

text: Many games with some of the Berlin Interpretation elements call themselves "roguelike", but bear little resemblance to the original "Rogue", causing confusion and dilution of the term. Some players of the Berlin Interpretation roguelikes disliked the dilution of the term, believing that in the 1990s and 2000s, the term "roguelikes" served well to distinguish games that forwent aesthetics to focus on depth of gameplay from games more comparable to interactive movies, particularly games that incorporated real-time gameplay elements which tended to reduce the game's complexity. As such, the term "rogue-lite" or "roguelike-like" has been used by some to distinguish these games that possess some, but not all, of the Berlin Interpretation features from those that exactly meet the Berlin roguelike definition. The phrase "procedural death labyrinth" has also been applied to such games, as they retain the notion of permadeath and random level generation but lack the other high-value factors normally associated with roguelike games.


title: Roguelike

text: Rogue-lites favor short gameplay runs with victory conditions, in contrast to some traditional roguelikes that can be played indefinitely. The shortness of a single gameplay run in rogue-lites can motivate players to continually replay the game in the hope of reaching completion, making replayability a high-value factor in these types of games. Game journalist Joshua Bycer observed that several games considered as rogue-lites feature fixed events, even if the means to reach that may be through procedural generation, whereas a roguelike game typically lacks this level of predictability. For example, several rogue-lites require the player to travel a fixed number of biomes, each which culminates in a boss fight, such as "Rogue Legacy". Associated with their short length, many rogue-lites feature a metagame, whereby achieving certain goals will unlock persistent features such as the ability to select a new character at the start of the game or the addition of new items and monsters in the procedural generation of the game's levels. Alternatively, each run through rogue-lite may be to collect resources which one then advances their character within the metagame, and a player may simply forgo a complete run once they have collected sufficient materials for that advancement.


title: Roguelike

text: Several rogue-lites feature daily challenges, in which a preset random seed is used to generate the game's levels in a deterministic fashion so that each player will have the same encounters; players attempt to complete the game through those levels or otherwise get the highest score through online leaderboards. Rogue-lites may also allow the player to enter the random seed directly as to be able to rechallenge the same set of levels or share a difficult set of levels with other players.


title: Roguelike

text: "US Gamer" further identified games they consider edge cases of being roguelikes or rogue-lites, as they are inspired by "Rogue", and "that stray a bit further from the genre but still manage to scratch the same itch as a great roguelike". These include games such as the "Diablo" series, "ToeJam & Earl", and "Dwarf Fortress", the latter which retains the classic ASCII art-approach to gameplay as traditional roguelikes. "Ars Technica" writer Richard C. Moss alternatively suggested that the term "roguelike" is less necessarily about any specific genre definition but instead the idea that "games can be deep, inventive, challenging, and endlessly compelling experiences through their rules and their systems alone".


title: Roguelike

text: In considering the popularity of roguelikes that deviate from the Berlin Interpretation, the rogue-lites, some subgenres have emerged.


title: Roguelike

text: Action roguelikes are typically based on combining gameplay of action games within roguelikes in lieu of the turn-based gameplay. "Spelunky" is an example of combinging a platform game with the roguelike formula, while "The Binding of Isaac" and "Enter the Gungeon" are effective roguelike shooter games. Within action roguelikes have also emerged a minimalistic shooter roguelike, with "Vampire Survivors" as a leading example; in such games, the player generally fights through wave after wave of enemies, their character often fully firing or using all possible attacks without player intervention, with the ability to expand their character through a random selection of power-ups as they defeat more enemies.


title: Roguelike

text: Another type of roguelike subgenre is the roguelike deck-builder, where combat is resolved by using cards or an equivalent object. These games are inspired by physical living card games, where the player builds their deck over the course of the game, forcing them to plan strategy on the fly. While the 2014 game "Dream Quest" is considered the first example of such a video game, the popularity of the genre was cemented with "Slay the Spire" in 2017.


title: Roguelike

text: The creation of roguelike games came from hobbyist programmers and computer hackers, attempting to create games for the nascent computer field in the early 1980s, particularly influenced by the 1975 text adventure game "Colossal Cave Adventure" (often simply titled "Adventure"), and from the high fantasy setting of the tabletop game "Dungeons & Dragons". Some elements of the roguelike genre were present in dungeon crawlers written for the PLATO system. This includes "pedit5" (1975) believed to be the first dungeon crawl game, and featured random monster encounters, though only used a single fixed dungeon level. "pedit5" inspired similar PLATO-based dungeon crawlers "dnd" (1975), "orthanc" (1978), "Moria" (1978), and "avatar" (1979). It is unclear if these PLATO games inspired the roguelike genre as there is no evidence that the early roguelike creators had access to these games. The core roguelike games were developed independently of each other, many of the developers not learning about their respective projects until several years after the genre took off.


title: Roguelike

text: Roguelike games were initially developed for computing environments with limited memory, including shared mainframe systems and early home computers; this limitation prevented developers from retaining all but a few dungeon levels in memory while the game was running, leading to procedural generation to avoid the memory storage issue. Procedural generation led to high replayability, as no two games were alike.


title: Roguelike

text: Though the term "roguelike" derives from the 1980 game "Rogue", the first known game with the core roguelike gameplay elements was "Beneath Apple Manor" (1978), written by Don Worth for the Apple II; "Beneath Apple Manor" is also recognized as the first commercial roguelike game. The game, inspired by Worth's enjoyment of "Dungeons & Dragons" roleplaying, included procedural generation using a modification of the random maze generator from the game "Dragon Maze", role-playing elements for the characters, tile-based movement and turn-based combat. Though "Beneath Apple Manor" predated "Rogue", it was not as popular as "Rogue": "Rogue" had advantage of being distributed over ARPANET which many college students had easy access to, while "Beneath Apple Manor" was packaged and sold by hand by Worth either at local stores or through mail fulfillment.


title: Roguelike

text: Another early roguelike whose development pre-dated "Rogue" was "Sword of Fargoal" (1982), developed by Jeff McCord starting in 1979. The game was based on "GammaQuest", an earlier title McCord had created on the Commodore PET which he shared locally with friends while a student at Henry Clay High School in Kentucky; the game itself was based on a "Dungeons & Dragons" campaign he had run himself in the prior years. Before graduating and attending the University of Tennessee in 1981, he had started work on "GammaQuest II", which required the player to navigate through randomly generated dungeon levels, acquire a sword, and make it back to the surface with that sword through more randomly generated levels. The more advanced computers available at the school, such as the VIC-20, enabled him to expand out the game further from the highly limited memory on the PET. On seeing the prospects of selling computer software, he eventually got a publication deal with Epyx, where they helped him to refine the marketing of the game, renaming it "Sword of Fargoal", and giving him access to the more powerful Commodore 64, enabling him to use graphics and sound as part of the game. The game was considered a success, and when it was ported to the PC in 1983, it out-shone "Rogue"s PC release the same year due to "Sword of Fargoal"s superior graphics and sound.


title: Roguelike

text: "Rogue" was written by Glenn Wichman and Michael Toy in 1980 while students at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The game was inspired by Toy's prior experience in playing the 1971 "Star Trek" game and programming clones of it for various other computer systems. It was also inspired by interactive fiction "Adventure". While looking for a way to randomize the experience of "Adventure", they came across Ken Arnold's curses library that enabled them to better manipulate characters on the terminal screen, prompting Toy and Wichman to create a graphical-like randomized adventure game. They created the story of the game by having the player seek out the "Amulet of Yendor", "Yendor" being "Rodney" spelled backwards, the name of the wizard they envisioned had created the dungeon. "Rogue" was originally executed on a VAX-11/780 computer; its limited memory forced them to use a simple text-based interface for the game. Toy eventually dropped out of school but got a job at the computing labs at University of California, Berkeley, where he met with Arnold. Arnold helped to optimize the curses code and implement more features into the game.


title: Roguelike

text: "Rogue" proved popular with college students and computer researchers at the time, including Ken Thompson; Dennis Ritchie had joked at the time that "Rogue" was "the biggest waste of CPU cycles in history". Its popularity led to the game's inclusion on BSD UNIX v4.2 in 1984, though at that time, without its source code. Toy and Arnold had anticipated selling "Rogue" commercially and were hesitant about releasing it; Toy would go on to meet Jon Lane at Olivetti, and together they would go on to create the company A.I. Design to port the games for various home systems along with publishing support by Epyx, later bringing Wichman back to help.


title: Roguelike

text: The popularity of "Rogue" led developers to create their own versions of the game, though their efforts were originally limited by the lack of access to "Rogue"s source, which was not released until BSD v4.3 in 1986. These developers resorted to building games from scratch similar to "Rogue" but with features that they wanted to see. These versions would be distributed with source code, and along with the original "Rogue" source, other developers were able to create software forks of the games, adding in new monsters, items, and gameplay features, creating several dozen variants. This process was aided by switching code to languages with better data typing, including object-oriented and scripting languages, and cleaning up and modularizing the code so that contributors can better follow where changes can be made.


title: Roguelike

text: While there are some direct variants of "Rogue", such as "Brogue", most variants of "Rogue" could be classified into two branches based on two key games, "Moria" and "Hack", that were developed in the spirit of "Rogue".


title: Roguelike

text: "Moria" (1983) was developed by Robert Alan Koeneke while a student at University of Oklahoma, inspired by both "Adventure" and "Rogue". Having access to a VAX-11/780, but without the source to "Rogue" due to computer administrator restrictions, he began trying to recreate "Rogue" but specifically flavored with the complex cave maze of the same name in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth stories. Following Tolkien's fiction, the player's goal was to descend to the depths of Moria to defeat the Balrog, akin to a boss battle. As with "Rogue", levels were not persistent: when the player left the level and then tried to return, a new level would be procedurally generated. Among other improvements to "Rogue", Koeneke included a persistent town at the highest level where players could buy and sell equipment, and the use of data structures within the Pascal language allowed him to create a more diverse bestiary within the game. He got help from several playtesters as well as another student, Jimmey Wayne Todd, who helped to program a deeper character generation system. "UMoria" (short for "UNIX Moria") is a close variation on "Moria" by Jim E. Wilson, making the game more portable to a larger variety of computers while fixing various bugs.


title: Roguelike

text: "Angband" (1990) was developed by Alex Cutler and Andy Astrand while attending the University of Warwick. Having played "UMoria", they wanted to expand the game even further. Working from "UMoria"s code, they increased the number of levels and monsters, flavored the game based on Angband, the massive fortress controlled by Morgoth from Tolkien's fiction, and incorporated more of the deadlier creatures described within the Middle Earth mythology. They kept the Balrog as a difficult creature that must be overcome at a mid-game level, while Morgoth became the final boss the player must defeat to win the game. Following Cutler and Astrand's graduation, Sean March and Geoff Hill took over the development to see the game through to a public release outside of the university, adding in elements such as giving the player a sense of the rewards and dangers of a level when they entered it the first time.


title: Roguelike

text: Once "Angband" was released to the public via USENET, there were efforts to have code maintainers (the "devteam") to fix bugs, clean up the code and implement suggestions into the code. Due to numerous shifts in those maintaining the code (due to other obligations), and the number of potential user suggestions to include, "Angband" would become highly forked, leading to a number of "Angband" variants; at least sixty known variants exist with about a half dozen still under active development. One significant fork was "ZAngband" (1994) (short for "Zelazny Angband"), which expanded on "Angband" and altered the theme towards Roger Zelazny's "The Chronicles of Amber". The "ZAngband" codebase would be used to create "Troubles of Middle Earth" ("ToME") in 2002, which later swapped out the Tolkien and Zelazny fiction setting for a new original one to become "Tales of Maj'Eyal" (2009). The vanilla "Angband" remains in development today by the devteam.


title: Roguelike

text: "Hack" (1982) was developed by Jay Fenlason with help from Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome, and Jonathan Payne, students at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School at the time, while participating in the school's computer lab overseen by Brian Harvey. Harvey had been able to acquire a PDP-11/70 minicomputer for the school and instituted a course curriculum that allowed students to do whatever they wanted on the computers, including playing games, as long as they had completed assignments by the end of each semester. Fenlason, Woodland, Thome, and Payne met through these courses and became a close group of friends and competent programmers. Harvey had invited the group to the computer labs at UC Berkeley where they had the opportunity to use the mainframe systems there, and were introduced to "Rogue", inspiring them to create their own version as their class project. Fenlason had created a list of features they wanted to improve upon in "Rogue" such as having a level's layout saved once the player moved off that level. They approached Toy and Arnold at a local USENIX conference for the source code to "Rogue", but were refused, forcing them to develop the routines from scratch. The resulting program, "Hack", stayed true to the original "Dungeons and Dragons" influences, and derived its name from being both a "hack and slash" game as well as a programming hack to recreate "Rogue" without having access to its source code. Fenlason was not able to include all the desired features, and his involvement in "Hack"s development concluded after the students had left the school. Fenlason had provided the source code to "Hack" to the USENIX conferences to be distributed on their digital tapes, from which it was later discovered and built upon through USENET newsgroups, porting it to various systems. Like "Angband", the maintainership of the "Hack" code passed through several hands, and some variants were created by different forks.


title: Roguelike

text: "Hack" would eventually be dropped in favor of "NetHack" (1987). When Mike Stephenson, an analyst at a computer hardware manufacturer, took maintainership of "Hack"s code, he improved it, taking suggestions from Izchak Miller, a philosophy professor at University of Pennsylvania, and Janet Walz, another computer hacker. Calling themselves the DevTeam, they began to make major modifications to "Hack"s code. They named their new version "NetHack", in part due to their collaboration over the game being done through USENET. "NetHack"s major deviations from "Hack" were the introduction of a wider variety of monsters, borrowing from other mythologies and lores, including anachronistic and contemporary cultural elements (such as a tourist class with a flash-bulb camera inspired by Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" series) in the high fantasy setting, and the use of pre-defined levels with some procedural elements that the player would encounter deeper in the dungeons. Further iterations of the game included branching pathways through the dungeon and optional character-based quests that could grant the player an extremely useful item to complete the game. Though the DevTeam released the code publicly, they carefully maintained who could contribute to the code base to avoid excessive forking of the vanilla game, and remain relatively quiet about suggested improvements to each release, working in relatively secrecy from its player base.


title: Roguelike

text: "Ancient Domains of Mystery" (1994), or "ADOM" for short, derived from concepts presented in "NetHack". "ADOM" was originally developed by Thomas Biskup while a student at Technical University of Dortmund. After playing through "Rogue" and "Hack", he came to "NetHack" and was inspired by the game but dismayed at the complexity and elements he found unnecessary or distracting. Biskup created "ADOM" from scratch with the aim of creating a more story-driven game than "NetHack" that kept the depth of gameplay with a focused theme and setting. The resulting game featured several different dungeons, many generated procedurally, connected through an overworld map of the fictional realm of Ancardia, and would have the player complete various quests in those dungeons to progress the game. A major feature was the influence of Chaos forces through unsealed portals, which the player would have to close. While in areas affected by Chaos, the player's character would become tainted, causing mutations that could be either detrimental or beneficial. "ADOM", like "NetHack" and "Angband", would gain a devteam to maintain the code and implement updates and patches to avoid excessive forking.


title: Roguelike

text: Not all early roguelikes were readily classified as "Hack" or "Moria" descendants. "Larn" (1986), developed by Noah Morgan, borrowed concepts from both "Hack" (in that there are persistent and fixed levels) and "Moria" (in the availability of a shop level and general difficulty increasing with dungeon level), but while these two games have spiraled in size to take multiple play sessions to complete, "Larn" was aimed to be completed in a single session. "Larn" also uses a fixed-time feature, in that the player had only so many turns to complete a goal, though there were ways to jump back in time as to extend play. "Omega", developed by the Laurence Brothers in the late 1980s, is credited with introducing an overworld concept to the roguelike genre, prior to the feature's appearance in "ADOM". "Omega" was often remembered for its odd inventory approach in which the player would have to pick up an object, considering it being held, and then moving that object to a bag or an equipment slot. "Linley's Dungeon Crawl" (1995) was created by Linley Henzell and featured a skill-based character progression system, in which experience points could be used to improve specific skills, such as weapon proficiency or trap detection. One fork of this would form the basis for "Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup" (2006). SSI's "Dungeon Hack" (1993) offered randomized dungeons and permadeath within AD&D 2nd Edition rules.


title: Roguelike

text: Through 1993, roguelikes primarily existed in computer space, and no home console variants had yet existed. Two of the earliest-known attempts were Sega's "Fatal Labyrinth" (1990) and "Dragon Crystal" (1990), but which lacked the depth of a typical computer-based roguelike. Neither proved to be successful games.


title: Roguelike

text: Chunsoft had gained success by developing the "Dragon Quest" series, a series which established fundamental aspects of the computer role-playing game genre, popular for Western computer audiences, into a more streamlined approach better suited for Japanese players that preferred consoles. With roguelikes starting to gain popularity, Chunsoft's developers believed they could do a similar treatment for that genre to make it better suited for Japanese audiences. Chunsoft's Koichi Nakamura stated their intent was to take "Rogue" and make it "more understandable, more easy-to-play version" of the title that could be played on consoles. This led to the creation of the "Mystery Dungeon", with the first title being (1993) based on the "Dragon Quest" series. Several changes to the roguelike formula had to be made for this conversion: they had developed ways to reduce the difficulty of the roguelike by using progressively more difficult dungeons that were randomly generated, and made permadeath an option by selection of difficulty level. An added benefit for "Torneko no Daibōken" was that it used the established "Dragon Quest 4" setting and the character Torneko, helping to make the game familiar to its planned audience and giving a story for the player to follow. While "Torneko no Daibōken" did not sell as well as typical "Dragon Quest" games, it was successful enough for Chunsoft to develop a second title based on a wholly original character and setting, "", released in 1995. Chunsoft found that they were more creative with how they developed the game without the need to respect an existing property. Since then, Chunsoft has developed over 25 games in the "Mystery Dungeon" series for various platforms, In addition to their "Shiren" titles, many of the other Chunsoft "Mystery Dungeon" games span various franchises, including "Chocobo" series based on "Final Fantasy", "Pokémon Mystery Dungeon" based on "Pokémon", and a crossover with Atlus' "Etrian Odyssey" in "Etrian Mystery Dungeon". Several titles in the "Mystery Dungeon" series were popular, and would become a staple of the Japanese video game market.


title: Roguelike

text: A primary difference between the "Mystery Dungeon" games and Western roguelikes following the Berlin Interpretation is the lack of permadeath – in "Mystery Dungeon" games, player-characters may die or become too injured, resetting their progress to the start of the dungeon, but the games typically provide means to store and recover equipment and other items from the previous run. The "Mystery Dungeon" games were not as successful in Western markets when published there, as the target players – younger players who likely had not experienced games like "Rogue" – found the lack of a traditional role-playing game save system odd.


title: Roguelike

text: Other Japanese role-playing games would incorporate random dungeon generation as part of their design, mimicking part of the nature of roguelikes, and were considered roguelike titles when published in Western markets. Such titles include "Vagrant Story", "Shining Soul", and "Baroque". The massively multiplayer online role playing game "Final Fantasy XIV" added a randomly-generated Deep Dungeon that was inspired by the procedural generation of roguelikes.


title: Roguelike

text: Though new classical roguelike variants would continue to be developed within the Western market, the genre languished as more advanced personal computers capable of improved graphics capabilities and games that utilized these features became popular. However, some of these new graphical games drew influence for roguelike concepts, notably action role-playing games like Blizzard Entertainment's "Diablo" (1996). "Diablo"s creator, David Brevik, acknowledged that games like "Rogue", "NetHack", "Telengard" and other roguelikes influenced the design of "Diablo", including the nature of randomly generated dungeons and loot.


title: Roguelike

text: Existing roguelikes continue to be developed: a sequel to "ADOM" successfully received crowd funding in 2012, while "NetHack"s first major release in ten years in 2015 is set to help the DevTeam expand the game further. New roguelikes that adhere to core Berlin Interpretation rules are still being created, including "Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup" (2006), "Dungeons of Dredmor" (2011), and "Dragon Fin Soup" (2015). A subclass of "coffeebreak roguelikes" that could be completed in a short period of time have developed, often derived from entries in the Seven Day Roguelike Challenge; examples include such as "DoomRL" (2013) and "Desktop Dungeons" (2013) Some games would also take advantage of the ease of developing in the tile-based ASCII interfaces common to roguelikes. For example, the highly popular "Dwarf Fortress" (2006) uses the roguelike interface atop a construction and management simulation, and would serve as a major inspiration for "Minecraft", while "SanctuaryRPG" (2014) is a more traditional turn-based role playing game featuring a scripted story that uses an ASCII interface and roguelike gameplay elements. "UnReal World" (1992), the game that is considered to be the forerunner of the survival game genre, and which frequently uses procedural generation to create the worlds that players must survive in, was developed by Sami Maaranen and was influenced by roguelikes, with its initial interface being similar to that of "NetHack".


title: Roguelike

text: The roguelike genre saw a resurgence in Western markets after 2000 through independent developers who created a new subgenre designated "rogue-lite", though the games are also sometimes called "roguelike-likes". Indie developers began to incorporate roguelike elements into genres not normally associated with roguelikes, creating games that would form the basis of this new subgenre. Two of the earliest cited examples of rogue-lites are "Strange Adventures in Infinite Space" (2002) and its sequel "" (2005) by Digital Eel, both space exploration games that included randomly generated planets and encounters, and permadeath. Digital Eel based their work on the space exploration game "Starflight" along with roguelikes like "NetHack" but wanted to provide a shorter experience that would be easier to replay, akin to tabletop beer and pretzels games like "Deathmaze" and "The Sorcerer's Cave" that has elements in common with roguelikes.


title: Roguelike

text: "Spelunky" (2008), released shortly after the formation of the Berlin Interpretation, is considered to be a major contribution to the growth of indie-developed rogue-lites. "Spelunky" was developed by Derek Yu, who wanted to take the deep gameplay that is offered by roguelikes and combine it with the ease and pick-up-and-play of a platformer. The result was a platform game incorporating the notion of permadeath in which the player takes an explorer character through randomly-generated caves. The intent was to create "deep" gameplay in which the game could be replayed over and over again, with the randomly generated situations driving the need for the player to develop novel, emergent strategies on the fly. Developer Jason Rohrer stated that "Spelunky" "totally revamped my thinking about single-player videogame design".


title: Roguelike

text: The formula and success of both "Weird Worlds" and "Spelunky" would influence other developers in creating new rogue-lites. Edmund McMillen, the developer of "The Binding of Isaac" (2011), and Kenny and Teddy Lee, the co-developers of "Rogue Legacy" (2012), credit Yu's approach with "Spelunky" as showing how to distill down the nature of a traditional roguelike to apply it to other gaming genres which they had done for their rogue-lites. Justin Ma and Matthew Davis, the co-developers of "" (2012), credited both "Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space" and "Spelunky" as part of their influence for "FTL". All of these games earned critical praise, and their success has led to a more modern resurgence in rogue-lites since their release.


title: Roguelike

text: The newfound success in rogue-lites is considered part of a larger trend in those that play both board and computer games, looking for "rich play experiences", as described by "100 Rogues" developer Keith Burgun, that more popular titles may not always offer. David Bamguart of Gaslamp Games stated that there is a thrill of the risk inherent in rogue-lites with random generation and permadeath, helping the player become more invested in the fate of their player character: "The deadly precariousness inherent to the unknown environments of roguelikes gives that investment a great deal of meaning." Additionally, many of these newer rogue-lites strive to address the apparent high difficulty and ruthlessness that traditional roguelikes were known for, and newer players will be able to find more help through user-generated game guides and walkthroughs made possible through wide Internet accessibility. Fabien Fischer offers that players have taken to independently developed rogue-lites as they have tired from "superficial gameplay, whitewashing spectacle, the content craze, and Skinner Box design" in titles produced by AAA developers and publishers.


title: Roguelike

text: Particularly for smaller indie developers, the nature of the procedural-generated world allows teams to deliver many hours worth of game content without having to spend resources and development time on fleshing out detailed worlds. This also allows developers to devote more time in building out complex gameplay features and their interacting systems that are part of the enjoyment of roguelike and rogue-lite games. McMillen of "The Binding of Isaac" stated that incorporating roguelike elements into other game genres can be difficult due to overcoming the complex interfaces roguelikes tend to have, but once a means to do so is found, "it becomes an increasingly beautiful, deep, and everlasting design that allows you to generate a seemingly dynamic experience for players, so that each time they play your game they're getting a totally new adventure". Examples of successful games that have integrated roguelike components into other genres include "Dead Cells", a roguelike incorporated with Metroidvania-style of platform games; "Slay the Spire", bringing roguelike progression to a deck building game; "Crypt of the Necrodancer" which uses a rhythm game-style approach in a roguelike dungeon; and "Enter the Gungeon" which establishes roguelike progression in a shoot 'em up. "Hades", a roguelike action role-playing game, was built to strongly incorporate elements of non-linear narrative into the game, giving the reason for the player to continually delve into replaying the game, and helped to draw in players to the roguelike genre that otherwise had been put off by its high difficulty level before.


title: Roguelike

text: The roguelike genre has developed with the expansion of both classical roguelikes and rogue-lite titles, a dedicated fan community has come about to not only discuss games within it but to craft their own tales of near-death adventures or amusing stories in roguelikes. Within this community, there is strong interest in developing roguelikes. The 7 Day Roguelike challenge (7DRL) was born out of a USENET newsgroup in 2005 for roguelike developers, informally challenging them to create the core of a novel roguelike within 7 days to be submitted for judging and play by the public. The competition has continued annually each year, since growing from 5–6 entries in 2005 to over 130 in 2014. In the spirit of the 2008 International Roguelike Conference, the "Roguelike Celebration" was held for the first time in September 2016 in San Francisco where several past and present roguelike developers gathered to discuss the history and future direction of the genre. It has since been organized again in 2017, 2018 and 2019 in San Francisco, and as virtual events in 2020 and 2021.


title: Lil' Kim

text: Kimberly Denise Jones (born July 11, 1974), better known by her stage name Lil' Kim, is an American rapper and reality television personality. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, she lived much of her adolescent life on the streets after being expelled from home. In her teens, Jones would freestyle rap, influenced by fellow female hip hop artists like MC Lyte and the Lady of Rage. In 1994, she was discovered by fellow rapper The Notorious B.I.G., who invited her to join his group Junior M.A.F.I.A.; their debut album, "Conspiracy", generated two top 20 singles in the United States and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).


title: Lil' Kim

text: Lil' Kim's debut studio album, "Hard Core" (1996) was certified double platinum, has since sold more than six million copies worldwide, and spawned three successful singles: "No Time", "Not Tonight (Ladies Night)", and "Crush on You". It had the highest debut in the US for a female rap album at the time. Her following albums, "The Notorious K.I.M." (2000) and "La Bella Mafia" (2003) were also certified platinum. In 2001, Lil' Kim reached number one on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100 with the single "Lady Marmalade" (a remake of LaBelle' 1974 single), alongside Mýa, Pink, and Christina Aguilera. Other notable singles from this period include "The Jump Off" and "Magic Stick", the latter of which reached number two on the "Billboard" Hot 100, becoming Kim's 2nd-highest-charting single as a lead artist.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In 2005, Lil' Kim served a one-year prison sentence for lying to a jury about her friends' involvement in a shooting four years earlier. During her incarceration, her fourth album, "The Naked Truth", was released to positive reviews from critics. A reality series covering her sentence, "", premiered on BET in 2006. She then released her first mixtape, "Ms. G.O.A.T." (2008), and returned to the public eye in 2009 with an appearance on "Dancing with the Stars". Throughout the 2010s, she continued to release music and perform sporadically, collaborating with artists such as Faith Evans, Remy Ma, and Fabolous. Her fifth studio album, "9", was released in 2019.


title: Lil' Kim

text: Lil' Kim has been referred to as the "Queen of Rap", as well as her alias "Queen Bee" by several media outlets. She has sold more than 15 million albums and 30 million singles worldwide. Her songs "No Time", "Big Momma Thang", and "Not Tonight (Ladies Night)" were each listed on "Complex"'s list of the 50 Best Rap Songs By Women. In 2012, Lil' Kim was listed on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Music list at number 45, the second highest position for a solo female hip-hop artist. Aside from music, Lil' Kim is also known for her risk-taking and luxurious approach to fashion that inspired many artists; she has been cited as a fashion icon. She has been noted for helping women embrace their "sexuality and femininity" in a way that was a stark contrast at the time from other female artists.


title: Lil' Kim

text: Jones was born in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City, New York, the second child of Linwood Jones, a former U.S. Marine. She has an older brother, Christopher. As a child, Jones attended Queen of All Saints Elementary School in Brooklyn. When she was nine years old, her parents separated, and Jones was raised by her father, with whom she had a tumultuous relationship. At fourteen, she left home, began living on the streets, and ended up dropping out of high school.


title: Lil' Kim

text: As a teenager, Jones met Christopher Wallace, known professionally as the Notorious B.I.G., who was a key figure in both her personal and artistic life, particularly after Wallace gained popularity and influence through his relationship with Bad Boy Records, founded by Sean "Puffy" Combs. Jones attended Sarah J. Hale Vocational High School for two and a half years. Many of her friends also went there, and they would all often skip school together. Since she was not completing her schoolwork, the decision was made for her to transfer to Brooklyn College Academy to finish her remaining year and half of high school. This was the same school that fellow rappers Nas and Foxy Brown attended.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In 1994, B.I.G. was instrumental in introducing and promoting the Brooklyn-based group Junior M.A.F.I.A., which included Jones, who adopted the stage name Lil' Kim and was 19 at the time. The group's album, "Conspiracy", was released to mediocre reviews and moderate sales on August 29, 1995, but debuted at number eight on the U.S. "Billboard" 200 chart, selling 69,000 copies in its first week of release. Wallace wrote and ghostwrote most of the album's material. Three hit singles came from "Conspiracy": "Player's Anthem", "I Need You Tonight", and "Get Money". The RIAA certified "Conspiracy" gold on December 6, 1995. "Player's Anthem" and "Get Money" were certified gold and platinum respectively. Lil' Kim's increasing popularity as a member of Junior M.A.F.I.A. allowed her to start a solo career shortly after the "Conspiracy" album was released, and she began working on what would become her debut album "Hard Core" by late 1995.


title: Lil' Kim

text: After a year with Junior M.A.F.I.A., Lil' Kim began her solo career by making guest performances on R&B albums and recording her debut album, "Hard Core", which was released in November 1996. The album debuted at number 11 on the "Billboard" 200, the highest debut for a female rap album at that time, and number 3 on "Billboard"s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, selling 78,000 copies in its first week of release and has sold over 5 million copies worldwide. "Hard Core" was certified double platinum by the RIAA on March 14, 2001, after having been certified gold on January 6, 1997, and platinum on June 3, 1997.


title: Lil' Kim

text: The album's lead single "No Time", a duet with Combs, reached the top spot of the "Billboard" Hot Rap Tracks chart and was certified gold by the RIAA. The following single was "Crush on You", a remixed version of the track that appeared on Hard Core. A remix of the album's track "Not Tonight" saw Lil' Kim team up with Missy Elliott, Angie Martinez, Da Brat and Left Eye of TLC with the song peaking at 6 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. The song was part of the soundtrack to the Martin Lawrence movie "Nothing to Lose", nominated for a Grammy Award, and certified platinum. She became the first female rapper to have three consecutive number ones on the "Billboard" Hot Rap Tracks chart.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In one stockholders' meeting of Warner Bros. Records, activist C. Delores Tucker criticized the label "for producing this filth", referring to perceived graphic sexual content in Lil' Kim's lyrics, and labeling them "gangsta porno rap". In 1997, Lil' Kim promoted "Hard Core" by performing on P. Diddy's "No Way Out" tour. The tour continued through to 1998 and became one of the highest grossing hip-hop tours of all time, grossing an estimated $16 million. That same year, she launched her own label Queen Bee Entertainment.


title: Lil' Kim

text: From 1998 to 2000, Lil' Kim continued working under the management of B.I.G.'s best friend, Damion "D-Roc" Butler's "Roc Management", touring and modeling for various fashion and pop culture companies including Candie's, Versace, Iceberg, and Baby Phat. Her outfit at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards received widespread media attention, fueled by the "shocked" response of presenter Diana Ross, who approached and jiggled Kim's exposed breast on national television. "The Washington Post" considered that the incident solidified Lil' Kim's "image of sexual fearlessness" and her career as "a fashion trendsetter."


title: Lil' Kim

text: On June 27, 2000, Lil' Kim released her second album, "The Notorious K.I.M." The album marked a new image and revamped look for the rapper. Despite the limited success of its singles, the album debuted at number 4 on the "Billboard" 200 and number 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, selling 229,000 copies in its first week. It was certified platinum by the RIAA, four weeks after its release. It was on this LP that the well-known hip-hop feud between Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown escalated. In 2001, Lil' Kim teamed up with Christina Aguilera, Pink, and Mýa to remake "Lady Marmalade", which was originally written about a bordello in New Orleans and performed by the group Labelle (which included diva Patti LaBelle) 25 years earlier.


title: Lil' Kim

text: The song was recorded for the "Moulin Rouge!" film soundtrack, released in April 2001, and stayed number 1 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 for five weeks. The song also went to number 1 in 50 countries around the world. This was a big accomplishment for female rap, as well as for Lil' Kim, who scored her first number 1 Hot 100 hit and became the second solo female rapper in history to hit number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 charts.


title: Lil' Kim

text: "Lady Marmalade" also garnered Lil' Kim her first Grammy Award. The second single, "Kimnotyze", was released as the lead single of record producer DJ Tomekk's compilation album "Beat Of Life, Vol 1". It was released in Switzerland, Austria and Germany only. The song was successful, becoming Lil' Kim's third consecutive top 10 hit in Germany after her number 5 hit "Lady Marmalade".


title: Lil' Kim

text: In 2002, Lil' Kim recorded a new entrance theme for then World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Women's Champion Trish Stratus entitled "Time to Rock 'n Roll", which was used during broadcasts, until Stratus' retirement. The single was released on "WWE Anthology", a compilation of entrance theme music to various professional wrestling superstars. Lil' Kim released the song "Whats The Word" in mid-2002. Despite not having an official release, it went on to peak at number 9 on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. It would later be released on the Japan edition of her third studio album, La Bella Mafia, as a bonus track.


title: Lil' Kim

text: On March 4, 2003, Lil' Kim released her third studio album, "La Bella Mafia". It debuted at number 5 on the "Billboard" 200, selling 166,000 copies in its first week, giving Lil' Kim her second consecutive top 5 album. The album received generally positive reviews from critics, receiving a score of 65 on Metacritic. A buzz single, "Came Back For You", was released ahead of the album, the music video for the song featured reality television personality Victoria Gotti.


title: Lil' Kim

text: The first single, "The Jump Off", featuring Mr. Cheeks, peaked at number 16 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Follow up single, "Magic Stick", featuring 50 Cent, peaked at number two on the "Billboard" Hot 100, staying there for three weeks. The song did not have a commercial release or a music video, but was successful due to high radio airplay, peaking at number one on the "Billboard" Airplay chart. A third US only single, "Thug Luv", featuring Twista, was released in the last quarter of 2003 at peaked at number 60 on the "Billboard" Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The album was certified platinum in the US, selling over 1.1 million copies.


title: Lil' Kim

text: Lil' Kim promoted the album with a string of concerts, which also featured DMX and Nas. Lil' Kim was nominated for five Source Awards and won two ("Female Hip-Hop Artist of the Year", and "Female Single of the Year"). The album also got two Grammy Award nominations for Best Female Rap Solo Performance ("Came Back For You") and Best Rap Collaboration ("Magic Stick"). She was also nominated for Best Pop Collaboration with singer Christina Aguilera for the song "Can't Hold Us Down", from Aguilera's album "Stripped".


title: Lil' Kim

text: Greg Thomas, an English professor at Syracuse University, began teaching "Hip-Hop Eshu: Queen B@#$H Lyricism 101". Lil' Kim herself was a guest speaker at the school. Professor Thomas considered Lil' Kim's lyrics "the art with the most profound sexual politics I've ever seen anywhere." David Horowitz criticized the course as "academic degeneracy and decline". Lil' Kim also made an appearance on the multi-platform videogame "". Lil' Kim provided voice-overs for her part in the storyline, where the player may fight an opponent to have Lil' Kim as their girlfriend.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In 2004, Lil' Kim recorded a cover of "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" which was used as the opening theme for Victoria Gotti's reality series "Growing Up Gotti". The same year Lil' Kim was featured on the remix of "Naughty Girl" by Beyoncé. In December 2004, Lil' Kim began recording a pilot for a VH1 reality show titled "718 Makeover". The 718 in the title is the area code for Brooklyn, where Lil' Kim grew up. The show did not make it to air.


title: Lil' Kim

text: Lil' Kim released her fourth album, "The Naked Truth", on September 27, 2005, while serving a federal prison sentence. It earned her a 5 mic rating from "The Source", making her the only female rapper to ever receive a 5 mic rating. The album debuted at number 6 on the "Billboard" 200 chart, selling 109,000 copies in its first week of release, giving Lil' Kim her third top 10 debut on the chart. "The Naked Truth" did not sell as well as her previous works, it only managed to reach a gold certification by RIAA. She said that her prison sentence left her with no time to promote the project.


title: Lil' Kim

text: The music video for "The Naked Truth" first single, "Lighters Up", was number one on BET's "106 & Park" for two weeks. "Lighters Up" was a Top Ten hit on the "Billboard" Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart. The single also reached number. 67 on the German Single Chart, number 12 on the UK Top 75 and number 4 on the Finland Single Chart. The second single, "Whoa" was released on February 17, 2006. It reached number 22 on Airplay.


title: Lil' Kim

text: On March 9, 2006, BET premiered the show "", which was filmed before Lil' Kim headed to prison. The show became the highest rated premiere in BET history, averaging 1.9 million viewers. In May 2006, Debbie Harry released a song in tribute to Lil' Kim called "Dirty and Deep" in protest of her conviction. The song was available for free from her official website. "Dance Remixes", her first compilation album, was released on June 6, 2006. The album featured remixes of songs from "The Naked Truth" and "Hard Core".


title: Lil' Kim

text: A limited pressing released only in the US, it received no promotion, due to Lil' Kim being in prison at the time of release, and failed to chart. On August 31, 2006, Lil' Kim presented the award for Best Male Video at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, it marked her first televised appearance since being released from prison. She also made appearances on the show "" and "" in 2007 and 2008 as a judge.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In January 2008, Lil' Kim announced that she had parted ways with Atlantic Records, choosing to release future projects independently. She stated she had no hard feelings towards Atlantic but felt more comfortable in her knowledge of the music business to do it alone. Lil' Kim released her first mixtape, "Ms. G.O.A.T.", an acronym for "Greatest of All Time", on June 3, 2008. It was produced by New York City DJs Mister Cee and DJ Whoo Kid. Among critics, the mixtape received generally positive reviews. It has been called a representation of Lil' Kim's return to the streets. Tito Salinas of "All Hip Hop" says "Lil' Kim shows that her time behind bars did not rust all of her swag away" on "Ms. G.O.A.T." On the other hand, Ehren Gresehover of "New York Mag" says that although one of the tracks "The Miseducation of Lil' Kim" is not bad, he wished that it was Lauryn Hill who was making a comeback instead.


title: Lil' Kim

text: On March 10, 2009, the song "Girls" by Korean singer Seven featuring Lil' Kim was released through digital stores as his U.S. debut single. Lil' Kim appeared in the music video that was released on the same day. "Girls" was produced by Darkchild. On March 24, 2009, she released the song "Download" featuring R&B singers T-Pain and Charlie Wilson. It was written by Lil' Kim and T-Pain and produced by Trackmasters. The song samples "Computer Love" by Zapp. Although it missed the Hot 100, it did chart on the "Billboard" Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, peaking at number 21.


title: Lil' Kim

text: Lil' Kim appeared on the eighth season of reality series "Dancing with the Stars", which began airing on March 9, 2009. She was paired with professional dancer Derek Hough until the dance couple was eliminated on May 5, 2009, against Ty Murray and his partner Chelsie Hightower, putting her at fifth place from all thirteen contestants that season. Her elimination was met by many boos from the audience, as she was a consistent high-scorer and a fan favorite.


title: Lil' Kim

text: On February 16, 2010, the Ludacris song "Hey Ho", which featured Lil' Kim and Lil Fate, was released as a promo single for his seventh studio album "Battle of the Sexes". In June 2010, Lil' Kim started her 2010 Tour, her first headlining tour since 2000. It took her across the US, as well as Canada and Europe.


title: Lil' Kim

text: Lil' Kim released her second mixtape, "Black Friday", on February 14, 2011. The video for the title track was released on February 16, 2011. The mixtape received mostly negative reviews from critics. It was made available for purchase via PayPal. In May 2011, Lil' Kim performed in South Africa as part of the music festival ZarFest alongside Fat Joe, Timbaland and Ciara.


title: Lil' Kim

text: On June 19, 2011, Lil' Kim performed alongside G-Unit member Shawty Lo and hinted a possible working relationship with G-Unit Records. That same month the song Lil' Kim, along with Rick Ross, was featured on titled "Anything (To Find You)", by R&B singer Monica was leaked. The song, which samples the Notorious B.I.G.'s "Who Shot Ya?", initially featured just Lil' Kim, but her second verse was removed to make room for Ross. Her vocals were then removed fully due to contractual issues with B.I.G.'s estate.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In August 2011, Lil' Kim performed four dates in Australia as part of the WinterBeatz Festival alongside Fabolous, Mario, 50 Cent and G-Unit. During the August, 17 date in Perth, she joined 50 Cent on stage for a performance of "Magic Stick". It marked the first time the pair had performed the song together. On November 28, 2011, Lil' Kim released a buzz single called "I Am Not the One". She also announced that she would release an EP, but it was later shelved for unknown reasons.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In the summer of 2011, Lil' Kim began recording material for her fifth studio album, as a restriction banning her from releasing new material as a result of her settlement with Trackmasters was lifted. On Valentine's Day, 2012, Lil' Kim released the song "If You Love Me" produced by Prince Saheb of Knockout Entertainment as a gift to her fans. That same month it was announced she would make her return to the stage on BET's "Rip the Runway". It marked her first televised performance in years.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In March 2012, during an interview with MTV's "Sucker Free", Lil' Kim revealed that contract issues with production duo Trackmasters were the reason behind her album delay, saying "...contractually, by the courts, I could not record any music – I wasn't supposed to put any music out." On March 23, 2012, the song "Keys to the City", a collaboration with Young Jeezy, was leaked to the Internet. Lil' Kim first mentioned the song during an interview with MTV's RapFix, saying "I have a song with another celebrity person that I know the world and my fans are gonna love... It's vintage Kim mixed with the new Kim." During the same RapFix interview, Lil' Kim also revealed another song, titled "I'm Ready", which she hopes to do with rapper 50 Cent. Lil' Kim also commented on the direction of her music, saying she was in "Kanye West mode", adding "...You do whatever you want to do ...it's all about taking chances". Lil' Kim kicked off her Return of the Queen Tour on May 17, 2012, to positive reviews.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In a radio interview at 99 Jamz, Lil' Kim stated that her upcoming book, "The Price of Loyalty", is on hold to coincide with the release of her new album. During an interview with "XXL" on April 26, 2013, Lil' Kim revealed that she does not have a name for the album yet, but the first official single would be out by mid year. Lil' Kim described the single, produced by Bangladesh, as "different" and "sweet dessert". On July 11, 2013, Lil' Kim released the Rockwilder-produced single "Looks Like Money" as a free download to her fans on her birthday.


title: Lil' Kim

text: On July 26, 2013, Lil' Kim announced and released the cover art for a new mixtape entitled "Hard Core 2K13", which will also serve as a sequel to her critically acclaimed debut album, "Hard Core". The mixtape was originally set to be released on October 31, 2013, but for unknown reasons, was pushed back. To make up for not releasing the mixtape, Lil' Kim released the singles "Dead Gal Walking" and "Kimmy Blanco" to the public, along with the track list. The track list revealed collaborations with French Montana, Miley Cyrus, Jadakiss, and Yo Gotti.


title: Lil' Kim

text: On August 2, 2014, Lil' Kim announced via her Twitter page that she would be launching a concert tour to promote her forthcoming "Hard Core" Mixtape. Throughout the remainder of the month of August, Lil' Kim released a number of remixes to popular songs, including a remix to Beyoncé's and Nicki Minaj's collaboration of "Flawless", seemingly as a diss to Minaj, reigniting the rap feud between the two rappers.


title: Lil' Kim

text: On September 11, 2014, the "Hard Core" mixtape was released as free download on Kim's official website. In an interview with Revolt TV on the same day, Lil' Kim revealed that she, Iggy Azalea, and T.I. would be collaborating on a song sometime in the future, saying "I don't know if it's going to be for my album or if we're just going to…we have other plans for it as well. But, I think we're going to do a double release." In the same interview, she explained the reasons why the mixtape was pushed back twice, stating "When this project was supposed to come out I had got pregnant. I didn't know. [...] Once I became fully pregnant, I was working in the studio but at one point I couldn't work anymore, obviously".


title: Lil' Kim

text: In 2016, Lil' Kim's fourth mixtape "Lil Kim Season" was released. On the mixtape, she freestyles over several popular beats, Drake's "Summer Sixteen", Rihanna's "Work", and Desiigner's "Panda". Upon release, the mixtape received mixed reviews from critics. Jen Yamato from "The Daily Beast" wrote, "if anything, "Lil Kim Season" indicates that Kim's got her sights set on returning in a big way—and that she's collecting collaborators who might help her achieve it."


title: Lil' Kim

text: In February 2017, Lil' Kim announced via her Instagram account and an interview that she is working on a new album set to be released in 2019. Lil' Kim was featured on the song "Lovin You for Life" from the album "The King & I", by singer Faith Evans, which was released on May 19, 2017. That same month, Lil' Kim along with Eve and Trina was featured on the remix of "I'm Better" by Missy Elliott. In November, Lil' Kim released a promotional single "Took Us a Break", and was featured on the song "Wake Me Up" by rapper Remy Ma. In March 2018, Lil' Kim released another promotional single "Spicy" featured rapper Fabolous.


title: Lil' Kim

text: On July 11, 2018, Lil' Kim released the single "Nasty One" which was anticipated to be a single from her highly anticipated album (the track would later go on to not be included). That same day during an interview with "Billboard", Lil' Kim revealed that her upcoming album would be released in November 2018. A remix for the single was released on October 26, 2018, and featured Kranium, HoodCelebrityy, and Stefflon Don.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In September 2018, it was revealed that the debut single for her album, titled "Go Awff" would be released at a later date. The song was eventually released on February 15, 2019. That same month, Kim was spotted in Barbados with fellow hip hop stars Mýa and Chilli, friends Char DeFrancesco (husband to Marc Jacobs one of Kim's best friends) and Tiffany, as well as MTV personalities Pretty Vee and B. Simone from MTV's "Wild 'n Out".


title: Lil' Kim

text: It was later revealed that this was part of a reality show titled "Girls Cruise" to be broadcast on VH1, of which Kim would serve as an executive producer. The show followed the group as they set sail to embark on a 10-day cruise in the Caribbean visiting the countries of Barbados and Trinidad just in time for Carnival festivities and also documented the group's bonding and new friendships with one another. The show premiered on July 15 with approximately 1.2 million viewers and ran for 11 episodes. It is unclear if there will be an upcoming season of the series.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In March 2019, Kim revealed that her new album would be titled "9" and added "There's a lot of meaning behind that." Later that month, she announced that the album would be released on May 17, 2019. After a minor setback with her record label, eOne Music, that caused the album not be released on the original planned date, the project was postponed. On September 27, 2019, Kim released a second single titled "Found You" featuring City Girls and O.T. Genasis. The album later became available for pre-order on all digital-download platforms on October 4, 2019 (along with the track "Pray For Me" featuring Rick Ross and Musiq Soulchild) with a release date set for October 11, 2019.


title: Lil' Kim

text: Upon its first week of release, the album charted on the R&B/Hip-Hop and Rap Album Sales, Digital Albums, Top Albums Sales, Independent Albums and Rap Album Sales. However, the album failed to chart on the "Billboard" 200 due to selling less than 1,000 copies, and no song from the album landed on the Hot 100 or Bubbling Under. During one of the reunion episodes for "Girls Cruise", Kim revealed that the album would be a two-part project, stating "I recorded so many songs. I have a part one and a part two." She also shared that her co-star and Instagram comedian Vena "Pretty Vee" Excell will make an appearance on the record.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In October 2019, Kim revealed that she will have a collaboration with Missy Elliott and Paris Hilton on the follow-up to "9". In an interview with Radio 103.9, Kim confirmed that the City Girls would be involved with the follow-up to "9". She also stated that she would "love" to have Pretty Vee host her tour. On her November 8, 2019 appearance on "The Real", Kim again confirmed that Paris Hilton and Missy Elliott will appear on "9"s follow-up; she said the song "sounds like a classic Missy Elliott record but 'now.'"(1:20)


title: Lil' Kim

text: Lil' Kim cited as her rap influences MC Lyte, Salt-N-Pepa and Roxanne Shanté. She was also influenced by Slick Rick, The Notorious B.I.G., Eric B. & Rakim, Queen Latifah and Mary J. Blige. Lil' Kim also cited Madonna as an influence, and stated she modeled her own career in that of Madonna, labeling herself as the "Black Madonna".


title: Lil' Kim

text: In 1998, Lil' Kim signed to Wilhelmina Models. That same year she was announced as the face for the fashion brand Candie's alongside Brandy. She became the first and only rapper to endorse the brand to date. In 2000, Lil' Kim signed a deal with fashion house Iceberg, and also with cosmetics brand MAC to help endorse their VIVA GLAM line of lipsticks and lip glosses alongside Mary J. Blige.


title: Lil' Kim

text: The MAC "VIVA GLAM III" campaign, which was built around a plum-brown lipstick, helped raise $4 million for the company in one year and became the most successful VIVA GLAM campaign to date. Due to the success, the two signed on for a second year. The rapper also modeled for the urban fashion line Baby Phat in August 2000. In March 2001, Lil' Kim, along with several other artists, featured in a commercial for Apple's Mac computers. It highlighted how users can burn custom CD's on their Mac.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In 2004, it was announced that Lil' Kim would launch a designer watch collection, titled "Royalty by Lil' Kim". Jeweler Jacob Arabo manufactured the watches. She also debuted her first clothing line, entitled "Hollyhood". Lil' Kim also lent her voice to the video game "Def Jam: Fight for NY" which she was featured in. In 2005, Lil' Kim collaborated on a shoe line with high end shoe store, Petite Peton. That same year Lil' Kim was featured as a character in the limited edition comic book "The Heist". The book was a collaboration between Marvel and Atlantic Records.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In August 2010, Lil' Kim signed a deal with Three Olives Vodka to become the face for their "Purple" vodka. In September of that same year, Lil' Kim, along with her cousin, Katrise Jones, opened their first beauty salon in Charlotte, North Carolina called "Salon Se Swa". That same month, Lil' Kim also launched her second clothing line, entitled "24/7 Goddess Collection", at Charlotte NC Fashion Week. In November 2012, Lil' Kim began endorsing Cîroc vodka, revealing her own cocktail, titled "Queen Bee", and announcing herself as the "First Lady" of the brand.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In 2000, Lil' Kim embarked on a promo tour in support of her second studio album, "The Notorious K.I.M.", and the MAC AIDS Fund. She visited MAC cosmetics counters, interacted with fans and help raise money and awareness for the cause, which helps people who are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. She took part in MAC's "Fashion Cares" show in Toronto, Canada. The show raised close to one million for the AIDS Committee of Toronto.


title: Lil' Kim

text: Her endorsement for MAC, with Mary J. Blige, would go on to raise $4 million for the fund. In October 2001, Lil' Kim was featured on the R&B mix of the song "What's Going On". Lil' Kim, along with several other popular recording artists, released the song under the name "Artists Against AIDS Worldwide", with proceeds going to AIDS programs worldwide and also United Ways September 11th Fund. That same month, Lil' Kim performed at Breathe, a benefit concert for breast cancer research and treatment. Proceeds from the concert went to the UCLA Breast Center and the Breast Examination Center of Harlem, an outreach program of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.


title: Lil' Kim

text: On March 12, 2002, Lil' Kim walked her dogs in the 3rd annual "Paws for Style" fashion show. The event is held by "Animal Fair" magazine as a benefit for the Humane Society of New York. Items worn by the animals were later auctioned off online. In 2004, Lil' Kim started her own foundation called "Lil' Kim Cares". The foundation raises funds, resources and awareness for national programs that assist with issues of homelessness, HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness, transitional living, child neglect and violence against women.


title: Lil' Kim

text: Speaking about the foundation, Lil' Kim stated she planned to be involved in a number of causes, most of which had affected her personally in past years. On April 17, 2004, Lil' Kim participated in the 28th annual Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race. The event helped raise more than $100,000 for "Racing for Kids", a non-profit program benefiting Southern California children's hospitals in Long Beach and Orange County. On August 24, 2004, Lil' Kim encouraged others to vote in the United States presidential election through the Rock the Vote campaign.


title: Lil' Kim

text: On March 10, 2005, Lil' Kim, along with several other artists, appeared in an episode of "The Apprentice". Each artist was approached by contestants to donate a "personal experience" to be auctioned off for charity through music channel Fuse's "Daily Download" program with proceeds going to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. In September 2005, Lil' Kim paired up with fashion designer Marc Jacobs for a limited edition T-shirt line featuring images of the rapper. The shirts, titled "Marc Jacobs Loves Lil' Kim", were sold exclusively at Marc Jacob stores with 100% of the proceeds going to The Door.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In 2005 Lil' Kim donated a diamond watch from her "Royalty" watch line to the World AIDS Day eBay auction titled "Bid 2 Beat AIDS". Proceeds went to LIFEbeat, an organization providing HIV/AIDS information to millions of young people annually. Through her foundation, Lil' Kim has given back to many, including teaming up with apparel company Mitchell & Ness and boxer Zab Judah to donate toys to underprivileged youth in Philadelphia in 2005, and teaming up with MusiCares in 2007 for a silent auction, held at the "Grammys On The Hill" ceremony, to help raise funds for the foundation.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In 2007 Lil' Kim was a part of the "4th Annual Grammy Charity Holiday Auction", which featured a large variety of celebrity-signed memorabilia that people could bid on through the online auction site eBay. On December 1, 2007, Lil' Kim teamed up with Preserve Our Legacy and the New Jersey Stem Cell Research and Education Foundation to put on a celebrity basketball game to raise awareness about various health issues plaguing minority communities.


title: Lil' Kim

text: On July 11, 2010, Lil' Kim launched her signature milkshake, titled "Queen Bee", at Millions of Milkshakes in West Hollywood, with proceeds going towards Wyclef Jean's Yéle Haiti Foundation. On February 9, 2013, Lil' Kim took part in the first annual "Reality On The Runway" fashion show. The event wanted to help raise $300,000 for people infected with HIV/AIDS and increase awareness. All designs from the show were auctioned off online following the event with a portion of the proceeds going to AIDS United.


title: Lil' Kim

text: Lil' Kim has been a longtime LGBT advocate and has participated in many gay pride festivals, including the LGBT Pride March in New York City, as well as performing at Atlanta Black Pride and D.C. Black Pride.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In her teens, Jones dated Shawn Powell. The pair met at the Empire Roller Skating rink in Brooklyn. After a couple of months of seeing each other, Powell was arrested for robbery and was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison. Jones and Powell continued their relationship with Jones visiting frequently and kept in touch by writing letters to each other. The couple became engaged while he was incarcerated.


title: Lil' Kim

text: During this time, Jones met Christopher Wallace (The Notorious B.I.G.). With Jones focusing on starting her rap career, the engagement to Powell was eventually called off and the couple split. In 1996, during the recording of her debut album, Jones became pregnant with Wallace's child. Jones did not make it public until 1999 during an interview with "The Source". Jones decided to terminate the pregnancy. "I already knew the kind of relationship that Biggie and I had, and I knew that [having a child] was something that couldn't take place..."


title: Lil' Kim

text: Wallace called Jones three days before his death and told her he loved her. In a 2010 interview with Ed Lover on Power 105, Jones revealed that Wallace assaulted her and she described an incident where he choked her to unconsciousness. In 2017, Jones admitted her relationship with Wallace was "very violent" after Jermaine Dupri claimed that he witnessed Wallace pull a pistol out on Jones.


title: Lil' Kim

text: On July 23, 1996, Jones was arrested for possession of marijuana after police raided the Teaneck, New Jersey home of Wallace. The arrest came after police smelled marijuana inside the home when they went to ask for someone to move an illegally parked car. Jones denied she was smoking, claiming she was "upstairs all day sleeping". On March 17, 1999, Teaneck police issued an arrest warrant after Jones failed to turn up to court dates stemming from the arrest.


title: Lil' Kim

text: The warrant was not a top priority for the police and was not made public until September 2003, after the story was published online by The Smoking Gun. Jones was later removed from Teaneck's wanted list in October 2003, after $350 in bail was posted on her behalf. Jones' attorney told reporters that she did not appear in court as she believed the case had been resolved.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In 2002, Jones started dating Damion "World" Hardy. The couple split in 2003. It was during this time that Jones had been a victim of physical abuse. Jones also stated how she had to have multiple nose jobs due to being punched.


title: Lil' Kim

text: On June 20, 2003, Jones had $250,000 worth of jewelry stolen from her while catching a flight at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport after a bag, which she intended to carry on, was mixed up with eight other pieces of her luggage. The missing jewelry was recovered 10 days later, found wrapped up in a rag in a locker room for airline employees by a United Airlines worker.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In 2004, Jones dated record producer Scott Storch. The two met when Storch offered Jones a ride to her hotel. The couple split after 2 months. In 2013, Storch revealed that he would have married Jones if the relationship had worked out. In 2007, Jones and Ray J briefly dated.


title: Lil' Kim

text: On March 17, 2005, Lil' Kim was convicted of three counts of conspiracy and one count of perjury for lying to a federal grand jury about her and her friends' involvement in a 2001 shooting outside the Hot 97 studios in Manhattan. During the trial of her co-manager, Damion "D-Roc" Butler, and her bodyguard, Suif "Gutta" Jackson, a former member of the hip hop group Junior M.A.F.I.A, she testified not to have known they were at the scene. However, video footage from a security camera placed all three at the scene, exiting the building. This directly contravened testimony before the grand jury.


title: Lil' Kim

text: Butler and Jackson pleaded guilty to gun charges. Jackson was sentenced to twelve years in federal prison as part of plea bargain in which he admitted to firing at least twenty rounds during the incident. The length of the sentence was said to have been influenced by his previous gun-related convictions.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In July 2005, Lil' Kim was sentenced to one year in prison, thirty days home detention upon release from custody, and three years of probation. She served the entirety of her sentence at the Federal Detention Center, Philadelphia in Center City, Philadelphia. She was released on July 3, 2006, after serving approximately 12 months. Lil' Kim, Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Register #56198-054, was released from BOP supervision on August 2, 2006.


title: Lil' Kim

text: Once high school friends, Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown originally remained close despite becoming associates of clashing hip hop groups Junior M.A.F.I.A. and The Firm, respectively. In 1995, they collaborated with Da Brat for the remix of "No One Else" by Total. The following year, they were featured in the Hot 97 NY Fashion Show, and additionally appeared on the covers of "The Source" and "Vibe". However, their first dispute developed after both of their debut studio albums were scheduled for release a week apart in November 1996.


title: Lil' Kim

text: Media outlets noted similarities between the sleeve covers of Lil' Kim's "Hard Core" and Brown's "Ill Na Na", where the two were shown wearing the same outfit. In 1997, the feud led to the deterioration of their friendship, and resulted in the cancellation of a collaborative album "Thelma & Louise". Brown noted that the breakdown of their relationship was influenced by their conflicting entourages. They first attempted a reconciliation in 1998 after Lil' Kim called Brown and her mother after the two were held at gunpoint during a house burglary.


title: Lil' Kim

text: In January 1999, critics noted the track "My Life" from Brown's second studio effort "Chyna Doll" for being an "open appeal" to Brown's friendship with Lil' Kim, in which she cited the relationship being "lost for pride", but also contradicted herself after making attacks on "pointed mistresses". Critics indicated the records were in subtle use to diss Lil' Kim, especially since during this time, Brown had been supporting Lil' Kim's rival Faith Evans in multiple interviews. In February 1999, a significant part of the media took note of Brown "suddenly sound[ing] 'exactly' like Lil' Kim".


title: Lil' Kim

text: In late May 1999, Lil' Cease's "Play Around", featuring Lil' Kim and Diddy, was released to radio airwaves and was set to be featured on Cease's debut "The Wonderful World of Cease A Leo". In the song, after Lil' Kim's guest rap, Diddy recites: "Stop trying to sound like her too bitches"; a subliminal diss aimed at Foxy. The line spurred enough controversy that various media sources went on to remark: "It's finally coming out. Foxy Brown bites worse than a pit bull." Additionally, Lil' Kim's guest appearance on Mobb Deep's "Quiet Storm (Remix)" and her second album's title track, "The Notorious K.I.M.", were released as diss records to Foxy Brown.


title: Lil' Kim

text: Angered by Lil' Kim's response, Brown collaborated with longtime associates Capone-N-Noreaga on the track, "Bang, Bang." In the track, Brown mimicked Lil' Kim's interpolation of MC Lyte's 10% Dis, and went on to recite: "You and Diddy y'all kill me with that subliminal shit." Towards the ending of her verse, Brown attacked Lil' Kim's grieving for the loss of Biggie Smalls by remarking: "Let the nigga [Biggie] rest in peace, and hop off his dick, bitch do you."


title: Lil' Kim

text: On February 26, 2001, at 3 p.m., when Lil' Kim had left New York radio station Hot 97, a shooting broke out; over twenty shots were fired between two groups of three men. One of the men in the groups was Capone, one-half member of Capone-N-Noreaga, who was entering the Hot 97 building in promotion of interviewer DJ Clue's new album, "The Professional 2", which happened to have also featured Lil' Kim. An affiliate, Efrain Ocasio, from Capone's entourage was shot in the back; both parties from Lil' Kim and Capone denied any involvement in the shooting. However, a motive behind the shooting was later determined; detectives informed "The New York Daily News" that it was a result of the verses Foxy Brown recited in "Bang, Bang".


title: Lil' Kim

text: Shaken up by the incident, Brown tried to reach out to Lil' Kim in hopes of settling a truce. Brown stated, "I really don't know how it started. But Russell [Simmons] and I, we got together, and I said, 'Russell, I want to call a truce.' I want to have a sit-down with Kim. I don't care what it is. Let's just end it. We can even do a collaboration. We're bigger than this. If it has to start with me, let it start with me." Brown extended an olive branch to Lil' Kim's camp, however Lil' Kim had cut all ties with Diddy and Bad Boy associates and wanted no communication with Brown whatsoever. On July 6, 2005, Lil' Kim was sentenced to prison for three counts of perjury and one count of conspiracy.


title: Lil' Kim

text: During the 4-year span leading up to Lil' Kim's sentencing, Brown and Lil' Kim began to exchange subtle diss records towards each other, among them included Lil' Kim's "La Bella Mafia", "Quiet", and "Guess Who's Back"; and in turn, Brown's "" and various mixtape freestyles. In the midst of the diss records, Brown was interviewed by Doug Banks in 2003 to disclose any further details pertaining to her dispute with Lil' Kim. Brown claimed that Lil' Kim was allegedly jealous that Biggie was to include Brown in his Junior Mafia collective. Brown also added that a tell-all book disclosing the feud would be released in Christmas of 2003. In her final regards to the dispute, Brown stated: "Kim is the only female artist that keeps me on my toes. She's the only one that I can look at; and any other artist that says they don't have that one person that keeps them driven... is lying."


title: Lil' Kim

text: Following her release from prison, Lil' Kim no longer acknowledged Brown. Brown, on the other hand, has consistently targeted Lil' Kim as a prime basis in her music and concert venues since Lil' Kim's prison release.


title: Lil' Kim

text: On May 17, 2012, Lil' Kim attended an interview with radio show, "The Breakfast Club". When asked about whether or not she had spoken to Brown at all in recent years, Lil' Kim replied, "I don't even know her. And when I say that; I don't know who she is to these days. I wouldn't even know what her voice sounds like."


title: Lil' Kim

text: Lil' Kim has been embroiled in a feud with fellow rapper Nicki Minaj since Minaj's success with "Pink Friday". With Lil' Kim and media critics noticing resemblances with her on the "Sucka Free" mixtape, Lil' Kim accused Minaj of copying her image saying, "If you are going to steal my swag, you gonna have to pay. Something gotta give. You help me, I help you. That's how it goes to me." Minaj's single "Roman's Revenge" with Eminem was believed by critics to be a response to Lil' Kim's comments, although at the time she denied this.


title: Lil' Kim

text: Minaj responded to the situation in an interview on The Angie Martinez show, saying "She picked a fight with Foxy, then she picked a fight with Eve, then she picked a fight with Remy, then it was Mrs. Wallace, then it was Nicki Minaj. Every time you in the news, it's 'cause you gettin' at somebody! Where's your music? Put your music out, and when I see your name on "Billboard", that's when I'll respond to you. Other than that, goodbye. It's Barbie, bitch."


title: Lil' Kim

text: Lil' Kim reignited the feud following the release of her mixtape "Black Friday", an album that directly referenced Nicki Minaj, via her debut album title and freestyling on Minaj's songs such as "Did It On'em" (that became "Pissin' On'em"); and with artwork that showed Lil' Kim decapitating Minaj with a sword. A fragment of Minaj's diss track "Tragedy" was released online in April 2011, featuring lyrics "Pink Friday, Eminem, 8 Mile/ It must hurt to sell your album on PayPal." Following the release of Minaj's second album, "Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded", critics suggested that the tracks "Stupid Hoe" may have contained attacks at Lil' Kim. Lil' Kim later suggested in an interview with "105's Breakfast Club" that the song "" from Minaj's second album was similar to her unreleased material, also calling Minaj "obnoxious" and "catty".


title: Lil' Kim

text: However, in a 2018 interview with Genius, Minaj alluded to the situation with Lil' Kim, seemingly confirming that the track "Roman's Revenge" was about the feud, saying, "Someone got at me. A veteran got at me, and I hit them with 'Roman's Revenge' and then I kept on going." In 2021, Lil' Kim stated on the red carpet of the BET Awards that she would like to do a Verzuz with Minaj.


title: Lil' Kim

text: Several media outlets have cited Lil' Kim as the "Queen of Rap", and as the alias she uses, "Queen Bee". "Newsweek" has called her the "First Lady of Rap", with editor Allison Samuels writing in 2000 that she has "transcended the male-dominated world of rap to become one of America's sassiest, most engaging icons".