Queen Latifah

• Born: March 18, 1970
• Place of Birth: Newark, New Jersey

HIP-HOP MUSICIAN AND ACTOR

Queen Latifah was among the most influential female rap/hip-hop artists. She was perhaps the first feminist rapper, eschewing the traditional roles assigned to women within hip-hop and presenting herself as an intelligent, strong woman. She has also established herself as an in-demand actor and producer.

Early Life

Queen Latifah was born Dana Elaine Owens on March 18, 1970, in Newark, New Jersey. Her mother, Rita, was a high school teacher, and her father, Lancelot, was a police officer. Her parents separated when she was eight and divorced when she was ten, but she remained close to both parents.

As a child, she idolized her older brother Lancelot Jr., so she learned martial arts and played baseball and basketball. She also learned to play the guitar and took ballet classes. Her athleticism and size led her peers to think of her as a tomboy, which upset her a great deal. When she was eight, she chose the name Latifah, Arabic for “gentle” or “delicate,” out of a book of Muslim names because she felt it accurately described who she really was on the inside.

In high school, Latifah played power forward on the basketball team and performed in the school’s production of the musical The Wiz. She also began rapping with a group called Ladies Fresh. She then organized rap group Flavor Unit, with her friend Shakim Compere. Latifah began to associate with Afrika Bambaataa’s Native Tongues collective, which was working to bring a more positive, Afrocentric consciousness to hip-hop. She recorded a demo single, “Princess of the Posse,” in 1988. D. J. Mark heard it and passed it on to Fab Five Freddy, the host of MTV’s Yo! MTV Raps, who helped Latifah land her first record deal, on Tommy Boy Records.

Life’s Work

Tommy Boy released Queen Latifah’s first solo album, All Hail the Queen, in 1989. It was a rap album but also demonstrated her broader musical interests, such as rhythm and blues and reggae. The album also was her first recording under the name “Queen Latifah”; her demos had simply used “Latifah.” She chose the moniker Queen because it was a logical progression from her “Princess of the Posse” identity and exhibited strength and confidence. On the strength of tracks like “Ladies First,” the album reached the top ten on Billboard’s rhythm-and-blues charts. Latifah soon started a management company called Flavor Unit Entertainment, which was responsible for discovering and managing several hip-hop acts, most notably Naughty by Nature. Latifah’s follow-up album, The Nature of a Sista (1991), was not the critical or commercial success of her debut album, and Tommy Boy elected not to renew her contract.

The 1990’s were filled with several personal tragedies for Queen Latifah. Her brother was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1992, and she was the victim of a carjacking that led to the shooting death of a friend in 1993. In 1996, she was pulled over for speeding and police discovered a loaded handgun and marijuana in her car. Latifah pleaded guilty to the charges and paid a fine.

In 1993, Latifah signed with Motown Records and released her third and most successful album, Black Reign. The album, dedicated to her brother, was certified gold. Its biggest single, “U.N.I.T.Y.,” reached number twenty-three on the Billboard rhythm-and-blues charts and won the Grammy Award for best solo rap performance.

In the early 1990’s, Latifah branched out into acting, appearing in Jungle Fever (1991), House Party 2 (1991), and Juice (1992) with rapper Tupac Shakur. She also made guest appearances on Will Smith’s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. From 1993 to 1997, she costarred in the sitcom Living Single. In 1996, she won the American Black Film Festival’s Best Actress award for her portrayal of bank robber Cleo Sims in Set It Off. Because of the death scenes in that film, Latifah added a clause to her contracts stating that she would not play a character who dies, ensuring that she can play in sequels as they arise.

After the cancellation of Living Single, Queen Latifah began work on her fourth album, Order in the Court (1998). Its emphasis on rhythm and blues and Latifah’s mix of singing and rapping led to comparisons to the work of Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott. The album sold well, primarily because of the success of its singles.

In 1999, Latifah published her autobiography, LadiesFirst: Revelations of a Strong Woman, and hosted a syndicated daytime talk show, The Queen Latifah Show until 2001 (she briefly resurrected the talk show in 2013). The next year, she received high acclaim for her role as Matron “Mama” Morton in the film adaptation of the musical Chicago. In addition to winning the Black Reel Award for best supporting actress and a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award, she was also nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. The success of Chicago largely overshadowed her arrest the same year for driving under the influence. She pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and received three years of probation.

Queen Latifah’s The Dana Owens Album (2004) and Trav’lin’ Light (2007) marked a departure from her previous recordings. These albums were composed of interpretations of jazz and soul standards and emphasized her singing. Between these albums, she appeared in several films, including Taxi (2004), Beauty Shop (2005), Last Holiday (2006), and Hairspray (2007). She also provided the voice of Ellie the mammoth in Ice Age film franchise (2006–16). In 2006, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2007, she won a SAG Award and an Emmy Award for her role in the television film Life Support. In 2008, she starred in Mad Money and The Secret Life of Bees. The following year she released the studio album Persona, featuring a variety of "personas" and moods. She went on to host the 2010 People’s Choice Awards and sing “America the Beautiful” at Super Bowl XLIV.

In the 2010s, Latifah increasingly turned toward television series and movies. In 2015, she starred as the titular figure in Bessie, an HBO biopic of blues legend Bessie Smith that she also produced. Critical acclaim for the film and for Latifah's part poured in. For her performance, she won an Emmy Award for outstanding lead actress in a limited series or a movie and a SAG Award for female TV movie or miniseries. The following year Latifah appeared in Miracles from Heaven, a film adaptation of the Christy Beam memoir.

That same year, Latifah began hosting The Rap Game, a televised contest among young rappers seeking to win a recording deal. She kept to the genre of musical television, next joining the cast of the Fox primetime drama Star (2016–19), about three aspiring singers. She plays Carlotta, the mother of a transgender woman, and has spoken in interviews about bringing realism to her performance to help viewers who might face similar situations. In 2017, Latifah received an Entertainment Icon Award from the American Black Film Festival Honors and a Jimmy Iovine Icon Award at the Revolt Music Conference. Also in 2017, she played a retired nurse in Flint, a Lifetime television movie about the ongoing crisis of lead-contaminated water in Flint, Michigan. Working on the film inspired her to campaign for redress for Flint residents.

Latifah later appeared in the film Girls Trip (2017) and a live television version of the Disney animation The Little Mermaid Live! (2019). She also took a part in the mystery short When the Streetlights Go On (2020) and starred in a reboot of the crime drama The Equalizer (2021–).

In addition to acting and singing, Latifah has also served as a producer or executive producer on numerous—and varied—television and film projects. Among them were a 2012 remake of Steel Magnolias, the 2016 documentary The Real MVP: The Wanda Durant Story, Flint, The Rap Game, Scream: The TV Series (2019), and The Equalizer.

In 2023, the Library of Congress selected Latifah's debut album, All Hail the Queen, to induct into the National Recording Registry, which preserves recordings that impacted the US in a culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant context. In addition to the album's lyrical significance surrounding prominent societal issues, the National Recording Registry highlighted that Latifah's All Hail the Queen paved the way for future female rappers in the music industry and demonstrated how artists could successfully infuse other genres, such as reggae, hip-hop, and jazz, into rap music. Latifah's induction marked her as the earliest female rapper and only the second female artist in the rap/hip-hop category to enter the National Recording Registry.

Latifah served as spokesperson for CoverGirl cosmetics, Pizza Hut, Jenny Craig, and Curvation. She produced a line of cosmetics for women of color called the CoverGirl Queen Collection, a line of casual and career wear, and a signature perfume called Queen. In 2023 and 2024, she hosted the NAACP Image Awards.

Significance

Queen Latifah strived to be a positive role model for African American women. In rap music, a genre known for misogyny, she wrote lyrics celebrating women’s strength and power. She encouraged young women to take charge of their lives, be confident in their own identities, and see themselves as queens. Latifah has also spoken out about social issues, such as police-involved shootings of African Americans, same-sex marriage, and AIDS. For her wide-ranging artistic efforts, she was recognized with a BET Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021.

Bibliography

Cummings, Moriba. "Exclusive: Queen Latifah on How 'Star' Inspires LGBT Youth." BET, 2 Oct. 2017, www.bet.com/celebrities/news/2017/10/02/queen-latifah.html. Accessed 2 Nov. 2017.

Jamison, Laura. “Ladies First.” The Vibe History of Hip Hop, edited by Alan Light. Three Rivers Press, 1999.

"National Recording Registry Inducts Music from Madonna, Mariah Carey, Queen Latifah, Daddy Yankee." Library of Congress Newsroom, 12 Apr. 2023, newsroom.loc.gov/news/national-recording-registry-inducts-music-from-madonna--mariah-carey--queen-latifah--daddy-yankee/s/5a91b115-3825-4a5f-a702-35940b4de958. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.

Nordyke, Kimberly. “BET Awards: Queen Latifah Gets Emotional during Career Tribute.” The Hollywood Reporter, 27 June 2021, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/queen-latifah-bet-awards-tribute-mc-lyte-lil-kim-1234974589. Accessed 20 July 2021. ‌

Ogbar, Jeffrey O. G. “Between God and Earth: Feminism, Machismo, and Gender in Hip-Hop Music.” Hip-Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap. UP of Kansas, 2007.

Platon, Adelle. "Queen Latifah on Recent Police Shootings: 'This Goes Wherever I Go.'" Billboard, 8 July 2016, www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/7431138/queen-latifah-police-shootings-today. Accessed 2 Nov. 2017.

Queen Latifah. Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman. William Morrow, 1999.

Riley, Jenelle. "Queen Latifah on ‘Bessie,’ Her Past and What She’ll Conquer Next." Variety, 18 Aug. 2015, variety.com/2015/tv/news/queen-latifah-bessie-emmys-1201571664/. Accessed 2 Nov. 2017.