Lil’ Kim, 45, has no hard feelings — even if a few of Beyoncé’s “Beyhive” members wrongfully called out the rapper for giving a shout-out to her “Beehive” at the BET Hip Hop Awards on Oct. 5! The legendary rapper addressed the Beehive vs. Beyhive controversy in a clip from a new interview with Hot 97 host Ebro Darden, which The Shade Room shared on Oct. 17. “Have you and Beyoncé ever discussed the Beehive?” Ebro asked, before wanting extra clarification that Kim was indeed the first artist to adopt the “Beehive” name for her fans.
“Yeah, at first. That was me. And then I had a group. Like that was my whole — Beehive, that was my whole thing. So my fans kind of adapted the name,” Kim replied. The rapper went on to recall especially devout fans who’d follow her to concerts wearing shirts with bees! “Now you fast forward to years later, and we in the social world, and my fans on the Internet are the Beehive,” she added. It’s true — Kim dropped a song called “Tha Beehive” in 2003, and even referred to herself as the “Queen Bee” in a 1996 track.
Even though Kim’s fans were first to call dibs on a bee-related name, she doesn’t see Beyoncé as a copycat. “And I feel Beyoncé rightfully so, has the right to call herself Queen Bee as well,” Kim admitted. “I mean her name’s Beyonce!” So let’s call off the angry tweets, shall we?
There really is no feud between these two icons. Take Beyoncé’s Halloween 2017 costume(s) as example! Queen Bey dressed not in one, but five outfits that paid homage to Kim’s most memorable outfits — i.e. her red carpet ensemble at the 1999 Source Hip Hop Music Awards, and her outfit from the video for her 1997 collab with Missy Elliott, “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly).”