The Naked Truth

1	Intro 0:38
2	Spell Check 3:37
3	Lighters Up 4:22
4	Shut Up B***h Intro / Katt Williams 0:55
5	Shut Up B***h 4:19
6	Whoa 4:07
7	Slippin 4:15
8	Answering Machine Skit 1 2:27
9	All Good 4:31
10	I Know You See Me 3:53
11	W.P.I.M.P. 0:30
12	Quiet / The Game 4:01
13	Durty 4:10
14	Answering Machine Skit 2 2:23
15	We Don't Give a F**k / Bun B 4:21
16	Gimme That / Maino 4:27
17	Kitty Box 3:49
18	Kronik 4:32
19	Winners and Losers 0:56
20	Get Yours / Sha-Dash 4:08
21	Last Day 10:02

Barnes & Noble

Seems like for every rapper facing jail time, there's a mediocre album that precedes their incarceration. Thankfully, Lil' Kim (née Kimberly Jones) -- who began a 366-day sentence for perjury a week before releasing her fourth solo disc, The Naked Truth -- breaks that trifling trend on Hard Core, featuring some of her best material since her 1996 debut. Inspired by her current legal woes, the Queen Bee clears her mind and her name before heading to the Big House. She starts off by sending a lyrical rebuttal to her critics with the aptly titled "Shut Up B**ch," then directs her anger toward her former Junior M.A.F.I.A. posse ("My Ni**s") and her onetime collaborator 50 Cent ("Spell Check"). The venting session continues as the Brooklyn native voices her disgust with the legal system, over the soothing grooves of "Slippin'." But once Kim sets the record straight, she's in a more festive mood, as shown by such high-energy cuts as "Put Ya Lighters Up," "All Good," and "Get Yours," featuring T.I. Instead of detailing her sexual exploits as she's done in the past, on The Naked Truth, a reflective Kim travels down a more personal path of pain, struggle, and redemption. The result is an album that, true to its name, strips away the fluff -- and in so doing, reveals her growth as an artist and a woman. B.I.G. would be proud. Anslem Samuel

All Music Guide

If you're going to do whatever possible to look like a doll, you might as well go all the way and sound like a talking doll, which is one thing Lil' Kim does effectively during much of The Naked Truth, her fourth album in ten years. When she yanks the cord out of her back and comes to life, it's only to deliver her most spiteful and bitter lines. She has many gripes and an even larger number of foes. The release of the album coincided with the beginning of a yearlong prison sentence for perjury and conspiracy, so it's entirely understandable why she would have some embittered thoughts to get off her chest, but even when she's playing the role of a hedonist, she seems distracted and disinterested. The productions are provided by a lengthy list of beatmakers, which gives the album a lot of range but not a good sense of flow. 7 Aurelius' work on "Kitty Box" is the most creative of all, spinning Shocking Blue's "Love Buzz" (one of the greatest previously unused breaks) into a swirling maze of sleaze. Hopefully, Kim's year away will leave her refreshed and ready to make a return album that's as exciting and as colorful as Hard Core or La Bella Mafia. Andy Kellman