New York native, Niatia Jessica Kirkland, best known as Lil Mama, was poppin’ in the late 200os when she first came on the hip-hop scene as a seventeen-year-old in 2007. Her passion and excitement for her city and the hip-hop culture saw her blow up with success, but it would also be this same excited energy that would lead to the stall of her career in 2009, just two years into her career. This is a look into how one action caused Lil Mama to be shunned by the entertainment industry.
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A Young Go Getter
Lil Mama had been passionate about music from a young age. At just 13, she bumped into DJ Enuff, the DJ for New York’s radio station HOT 97, according to Reuters. During this meeting, Lil Mama attempted to convince DJ Enuff to play her music on the show, but was told to return when she was older. She returned at age 16, played her debut single “Lip Gloss” for Enuff, and became an instant sensation. In 2007, The Guardian called the song “stupid-fresh,” and in 2025, Rolling Stone Australia called the song one of the best one-hit wonders of the 2000s.
Debut Album And Mother’s Death
After her hit debut landed her a contract with Jive Records, Lil Mama started working on her debut album. All seemed to be going well for Lil Mama; she had collaborated with Avril Lavigne for the remix of her song “Girlfriend” and had managed to get a feature from T-Pain on her debut album.
However, things seemed to slow down when her debut album didn’t make it past 25 on the Billboard charts. Along with this underwhelming debut, Lil Mama was also having to deal with the tragic passing of her mother from breast cancer. In a 2020 interview with Essence, Lil Mama reflected on how her mother’s death affected her:
“I definitely deal with it every day… It’s a blessing to have had her in my life as long as I did. It’s really tough to become a teenager without your mom, let alone a woman. It’s not easy.”
Things Start To Pick Back Up
In 2008, Lil Mama slowly regained her footing in the entertainment industry by landing a role as a judge on MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew,” alongside JC Chanez and Shane Sparks. This solidified Lil Mama’s presence on TV and increased her audience reach. Lil Mama was back on track to being the latest sensation in hip-hop.
VMA Disaster
As previously stated, Lil Mama was very passionate about her city, New York, and hip-hop culture. It would be this passion that would lead to her sudden downfall. During the messy 2009 VMAs—the same VMAs where Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech— Lil Mama did some interrupting of her own.
As Jay-Z and Alicia Keys performed their hit song, “Empire State of Mind,” Lil Mama got onto the stage to show love for her city by vibing in the background of their performance, even after Beyoncé tried to stop her, and then posed with Jay-Z and Alicia Keys at the end of their set. It would be this moment that left a stain on her career.
The Aftermath
In an interview with British TV host Tim Kash, the next day, Lil Mama did her best to explain why she got on the stage:
“I got emotional, I actually got emotional, and I felt like ‘Yeah, New York, Jay’ and I started to feel like I started to feel him and I started to feel myself. And I just felt the energy, and I got up and started walking towards the stage, and I got up there and I was just like rooting him on as a champion… If [in] any way Jay-Z or Alicia Keys felt offended, I wanna apologise to both of you. I actually would love to have a one-on-one ’cause I actually felt like I was being felt… on stage in that moment I felt like it was a bond…”
Jay-Z was, unsurprisingly, not happy about the fact that Lil Mama jumped on stage during his and Alicia Keys’ performance. Speaking with radio host Angie Martinez, Jay-Z stated that he would “never have the nerve to do that… to interrupt that moment for us, I don’t think it was the right thing to do… I was a little angry, to be honest, but what am I going to do? Fight Lil Mama?” Alicia Keys didn’t address the stage crash.
Crickets For Lil Mama
It was that unfortunate VMAs moment that seemed to get Lil Mama shunned by the entertainment industry. Though Lil Mama kept her role as a judge on “America’s Best Dance Crew” until 2012, and played the role of Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes in the VH1 movie “CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story,” people would not stop associating her with that doomed VMAs performance.
Lil Mama’s moment on the VMAs stage became a meme and a hot topic as people wondered what “possessed” her to get on the stage. It didn’t help that neither Jay-Z nor Alicia Keys spoke out for Lil Mama.
How The Backlash Affected Lil Mama
On March 13, 2024, Lil Mama spoke out on the “Jay Hill Podcast” about how the backlash from that VMAs performance affected her:
“I was hurt. I was depressed. I was like ‘What’s going on?’ You got everybody telling you ‘you’re doing bad.’ And people point at you like ‘what did you do?’ She then states that her faith in God was able to help her get through that.
“My mother taught me about the love of God and the direction of God and the spirit when I was a very young girl, probably like three or four… My foundation in that space and my family, like having a family that’s not trying to make me right or wrong, is a blessing, ’cause they’re finding the balance and truth.”
Lil Mama also became very inconsistent with her music releases, having lost the drive after the ridicule she felt from the entertainment industry.
Alicia Keys Speaks Out
Finally, in 2021, Alicia Keys spoke out about the incident. Keys spoke with Complex News and said that she remembers nothing about the moment. She went on to explain that she and Jay-Z stood at opposite ends of the stage, and she was “oblivious to the idea that next to him was another person,” according to E! News.
However, Keys decided to take an understanding approach, saying that “this is what my music does to people. What can we say?”
Jay-Z Shows Grace
During a talk on Twitter Spaces with Music Exec, Rob Markman, Jay-Z spoke for the last time about that VMAs night and publicly forgave Lil Mama for crashing the stage:
“That’s our sister. Man, we love her… She’s a New Yorker… She got excited. Things happen. Of course, we love her… yes, she’s forgiven.”
After learning that both Jay-Z and Alicia Keys had forgiven her, Lil Mama responded with a since-deleted Instagram post thanking both artists for being understanding, according to Complex.
Where’s Lil Mama Now?
Lil Mama remains active on her Instagram, where she teases new music and continues to flaunt her colorful fashion taste. Though Lil Mama may have been shunned by the entertainment industry for a mistake she made when she was 19, she hasn’t let the moment dim her light entirely.
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