She collaborated with a number of producers, such as Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs, Stevie J., David "Ski" Willis and Jermaine Dupri, among others.

's Conspiracy album, Lil' Kim appeared on records by artists such as Mona Lisa, the Isley Brothers, and Total.

[4] Working with a number of producers, including Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and Jermaine Dupri, the album featured edgy hardcore rap and explicit sexuality, as the title suggested, which at the time were two territories that had long been the province of male rappers.

The Source called the album "a solid debut because phat beats and rhymes are really all it takes, and they're both present",[15] while Rolling Stone magazine included Hard Core in its list of "Essential Recordings of the 90's".

"[18] Rolling Stone concluded in reviewing the album in the magazine's 2004 version of The Rolling Stone Album Guide:[19] Hip-hop had never seen anything like Brooklynite Kimberly Jones at the time of her solo debut: She single-handedly raised the bar for raunchy lyrics in hip-hop, making male rappers quiver with fear with lines like "You ain't lickin' this, you ain't stickin' this .

's Ready to Die and Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt, Kim's Hard Core helped put East Coast hip-hop back on top in the late '90s.

The album's overreliance on old '70s funk samples doesn't detract a bit from the Queen Bee's fearless rhymes: In "Dreams", she demands service fom R. Kelly, Babyface, and nearly every "R&B dick" in the field.

LL Cool J's website rockthebells.com wrote that "Kim's high glamour, sex appeal and commercial success made her a new standard for female rappers.

[23] Despite not spending another week inside the top 30,[23] the album was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on March 14, 2001,[24] and had sold 1.5 million copies in the United States by June 2000.