Rap star denies shooting link

Lil' Kim's debut album was produced by Sean "Puffy" Combs

Brooklyn rapper Lil' Kim has said a shooting which happened after she left a New York radio station was unconnected to her.

One man was wounded in the incident outside the Hot97, WQHT radio station on 25 February when five men fired 22 bullets.

Reports said that Lil' Kim, real name Kimberly Jones, was driven away in a limousine as soon as the shooting started, and was later questioned by police at her home.

But she denied knowing who started shooting, or why.

Her manager, Hillary Weston, said: "Lil' Kim and her security had nothing to do whatsoever with the incident."

The New York Daily News newspaper reported the incident was the result of a feud between Lil' Kim and rival rappers, Capone-N-Noreaga.

I figured somebody was going to come back and put more [bullets] in my head

Efrain Ocasio
Shooting victim

The shooting took place at approximately 1515 after the rap star left the hip hop radio station, based in Greenwich Village.

Efrain Ocasio, 31, who police described as hanger-on with Capone-N-Noreaga, was treated for a back wound at hospital and was released.

'Playing dead'

Ocasio said that he did not know those behind the attack. "All of a sudden a group of guys started shooting, and the next thing I knew, I was hit," he told the Daily News.

"I had to stay on the floor three seconds playing I was dead. I figured somebody was going to come back and put more in my head."

The feud is said to have started in September last year when a Capone-N-Noreaga release featured a scathing rap about Lil' Kim.

Lil' Kim, 25, released her debut album, Hardcore, in 1996. The album was produced by Sean "Puffy" Combs, who is currently facing charges relating to a shooting in a New York club on December 27 1999.