So, Lil’ Kim has a new album coming out and has been promoting a new song called “Dead Gal Walking.” It’s making a lot of news, but unfortunately for Lil’ Kim, the reason has nothing to do with the song itself.
It’s the album artwork that people are talking about – mainly the fact that it’s totally not hers.
Here’s the image that Lil’ Kim’s been using to promoted the new track. Pretty cool image, right?
The only problem is that the image belongs to redditor and makeup artist Samantha Ravndahl, known online as Sssamanthaa. It serves as the finished product of a how-to guide she posted on reddit’s popular MakeupAddiction subreddit, HOW TO: Pop Art Zombie Tutorial. Not only that, but she’s been posting it on her other social accounts since October 9th.
Ravndahl is the makeup artist, photographer, and subject of the image in question. She recently posted this to reddit’s legal advice subreddit, under the heading “Lil Kim took my photo and is using it as album art for her new shitty song”:
So, this is a thing that’s been happening. Lil Kim took my photo and is using it as album art (might I add she took the liberty of adding her watermark over it on instagram). I have spoken with a lady on her team as well as her manager, which has done a whole lot of nothing. I’ve reported the photos on Facebook and Instagram multiple times, but they are continually posted. Anyone have any thoughts on what to do here? I live in BC, Canada.
Despite speaking to Lil’ Kim’s team, the rapper continues to promote her new song with the image. She even put her own watermark on the image and posted it on Instagram:
Sssamanthaa says that she has plans to consult a lawyer. After receiving some classy feedback from Lil’ Kim fans like “Fuck u and your artwork cracker bitch, You should be flattered Kimmy even noticed it!,” she just posted this little disclaimer on Instagram:
I expect we’ll be covering this more in the future. I’m not an IP lawyer and uploading images to the internet comes with a ridiculously confusing set of rules – depending on which site you use – so I won’t venture into what I think will happen here. Stay tuned.
