The magazine says its limited-edition cover 'is meant to salute and pay tribute to Black icons.'
Lil Kim is putting Ebony on blast for the heavily retouched photo the magazine used of her for its limited-edition cover, but the outlet says it is proud of the cover.
The beef started Tuesday after the magazine unveiled the cover featuring the legendary rapper, which is one of five special covers celebrating 50 years of hip-hop. Ebony shared the cover on its Instagram page and it drew praise from some fans. But a large sector of Lil Kim's fan base called out the magazine for heavily retouching the photo.
Things only got worse from there. After a fan commented on the post asking, "Who photographed this?" the magazine's photography director shot back with the reply, "Man, she wanted to be in control of the retouching, so this is what we got."
Lil Kim, however, says that's not how it went down. In a since-expired Instagram Story, Lil Kim refuted the photography director's claims.
"Who is this?!" her Story began. "Cuz that's not the photo I approved or any other content they've put out. I always told Ebony it looked like a painting, but they didn't wanna listen. They said they loved it. IT's the sabotage for me. The funny sh**t about this is that this is THEIR RETOUCHER!"
A member of Lil Kim's team also took to his Instagram Stories and shared, "Me & @lilkimthequeenbee Stayed up for hours wit the team & Chose This 1 .. We have The Receipts Fool!" He added, "For The Record We definitely didn't chose that other flick."
Lil Kim also reposted another team member's Story, which read, "How about we talk about how your photo exposure was so low we couldn't even salvage them. At the end of the day, it was EBONY's retouchers who edited the photo."
In a statement to ET, a spokesperson for Ebony says, "Kim looks beautiful on our cover! We are as proud of it as we are of her. Our limited-edition cover is meant to salute and pay tribute to Black icons, inclusive of 5 major figures in hip hop - and EBONY is focused on that."
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