As an entertainer, Lil Mama didn’t bother with the media training that would make her less of an around-the-way girl. Her ass didn’t suddenly grow to massive proportions so that she would look really thick in spandex one-pieces. She was never interested in being anyone’s sex symbol or denying her own talents to give off a false facade of ladylike demureness. Lil Mama is a Black girl from New York that has probably been called loud, obnoxious, and uncivilized for most of her life. I know that because I’m a Black girl from Chicago who gets called those things. Our literal inability to be the kind of women that people want us to be: chill enough to not hop on the stage when we get a surge of hometown pride, sexy enough to sell records, polished enough to be taken seriously — constantly puts us at odds with everyone else. It’s the tide Lil Mama has been swimming against for a decade. About a year ago, Lil Mama dropped a track called “Memes.” Thus, letting the world know that she wasn’t blind to the shallow categorizations by the rest of the world. Like everything else that Lil Mama has done in her now decade-long career, it racked up views in the millions but didn’t generate the mainstream buzz that lends itself to respect. Since then, she’s kept fairly quiet. Earlier this month, however, Lil Mama posted a series of photos of herself in full glam mode. She appears in several full-length gowns, serving the sophisticated chic that previously evaded her public image. For the first time, Lil Mama is sexy in the way that we expect from a female rapper. In one photo she crouches down in small bottoms, legs agape. As a fellow New York MC, not even she can ignore the picture’s semblance to the iconic pose of Lil Kim, and later Nicki Minaj . While it can be argued that this shoot represents a personal evolution and maturity — the former teen entertainer is now just a couple of years shy of 30 — I can’t help but wonder if she’s grasping at what was a missed opportunity to do things the way everyone else wanted her to.