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.. width="425" height="350" .. Queen Latifah made a big splash when she first appeared, rapping about uplifting the race (but not a separatist) and about being a proud black woman (but not explicitly feminist), over beats that were danceable (but not crossover). Since then, she's headed into more mainstream territory, becoming more popular with the general public (like Fresh Prince and LL Cool J, she's even got her own TV show) but has lost some credibility with the hiphop fans who got her started. (DBW)------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- All Hail The Queen (1989) Determined to make a good first impression, Latifah brought in a bunch of guest producers and performers - De La Soul, KRS-One, Daddy-O, Monie Love - and it keeps things interesting. Every track here is good, mostly produced by DJ Mark the 45 King, who uses lots of sax samples over hard beats to create a sound that's uncompromising but tuneful. Her boasting raps are pretty much like anyone else's; what distinguishes her lyrically is smoking socially-relevant cuts like "Ladies First" and "Evil That Men Do." And you've got to love a record that borrows licks from everyone from Sly Stone to the Barney Miller theme music. (There are three fun remixes on the CD, but unfortunately they left off the excellent 12" version of "Ladies First.") (DBW) Nature Of A Sista' (1991) Queen didn't use 45 King for this album; she has a variety of producers including Naughty By Nature (a group she'd discovered) and Soulshock, and they head for a lighter, keyboard-heavy sound: the single "Fly Girl," with its sung chorus is heavily influenced by LL's "Around The Way Girl." Some of these tracks work very well on their terms ("Give Me Your Love" is lovely), but if you're looking for hardcore hip-hop, this isn't it. She also has some more traditional hip-hop jams (the single "Latifah's Had It Up 2 Here," "If You Don't Know" is yet another sample from James Brown's "The Payback"), Luis Vega (not Little Louie Vega) recalls the previous album on a couple of sax-happy cuts (title track), and the Queen experiments with reggae on "Sexy Fancy," and with acid-jazz on "How Do I Love Thee?" (DBW)Black Reign (1993) Like MC Lyte's Ain't No Other, this was an attempt to recapture Latifah's street credibility - the cover photo shows her angry-faced in gansta gear. She's convincingly pissed-off and vulgar on "Rough..." (with guest rappers KRS-One, Treach and Heavy D), but seems more comfortable on gentler crossover material like the single "U.N.I.T.Y." and "Just Another Day." Once again, she uses an army of producers: Tony Dofat, S.I.D., Kay Gee - the Queen herself produces "Winkie's Theme," an excellent, jazzy tribute to her brother - but mostly the hooks (musical and lyrical) aren't as sharp as on Latifah's earlier work. There are some catchy tunes, though, including three uptempo looks at romance: "I Can't Understand," "Superstar," and "Weekend Love." (DBW)Order In The Court (1998) Latifah's as well equipped as anyone to pull off a Missy Elliott imitation, and she does that on a bunch of tracks here: sung choruses ("I Don't Know") and dense, noisy grooves ("Bananas"). Elsewhere, it's the same retro-soul style Latifah explored on the two previous albums ("Black On Black Love," which samples The Isley Brothers's "Make Me Say It Again Girl"). Despite the unoriginal approach, it's a focused, potent album, with solid backing tracks ("Brownsville"), and some lovely vocals ("It's Alright"). She uses more different producers than ever before - Marcus DL, Big Jaz, Kaygee, Darrin Lighty, Pras (whose unimaginative take on "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" is a low point), Kendu Isaacs, Big Baby McClary, Suga Allen, Devine Styler, Diamond D, even DJ Clark Kent - but the sound is more or less consistent throughout. Guests include Apache, Next, Inaya Jafan and Sisqo. (DBW)The Dana Owens Album (2004) Look, I root for Queen Latifah whatever she's doing, and when I heard she was cutting a jazz standards album I thought, "With her personality and lovely singing voice, this should be fun." But it's a big bore, because she doesn't personalize the material: the opening "Baby Get Lost" sets the tone, a generic big band blues delivered with clichéd sauciness. The by-the-numbers rendition of "I Put A Spell On You" is downright bizarre, given the outrageousness of the original. The most unusual aspect of the project is the song selection: "California Dreamin'" and Al Green's "Simply Beautiful" - with Green on backing vocals - sit alongside more traditional fare like Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life." In the damning with faint praise department, nothing's truly terrible, and a couple of the compositions are so strong they carry themselves despite Latifah's underselling ("The Same Love That Made Me Laugh," with disco strings; "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy"). A ton of talent is on hand - Arif Mardin produced half the tracks; Herbie Hancock plays piano on "Spell"; James Moody appears on "Moody's Mood For Love" - but everyone sticks to the program of sanding down the rough edges until the tracks are so smooth there's nothing to hold onto. As an aside, am I the only one who's sick of this trend of rappers using their real name as their album title? I get the idea about wanting to reveal your true self and not the media-ready persona, but it still bugs me, especially on an album as impersonal as this one. Queen Latifah was certainly not the first female rapper, but she was the first one to become a bona fide star. She had more charisma than her predecessors, and her strong, intelligent, no-nonsense persona made her arguably the first MC who could properly be described as feminist. Her third album, Black Reign, was the first album by a female MC ever to go gold, a commercial breakthrough that paved the way for a talented crew of women rappers to make their own way onto the charts as the '90s progressed. Latifah herself soon branched out into other media, appearing in movies and sitcoms and even hosting her own talk show. Yet even with all the time she spent away from recording, she remained perhaps the most recognizable woman in hip-hop, with a level of respect that bordered on iconic status.Queen Latifah was born Dana Owens in Newark, NJ, on March 18, 1970; her Muslim cousin gave her the nickname Latifah -- an Arabic word meaning "delicate" or "sensitive" -- when she was eight. As a youngster, she starred in her high school's production of The Wiz, and began rapping in high school with a group called Ladies Fresh, in which she also served as a human beatbox. In college, she adopted the name Queen Latifah and hooked up with Afrika Bambaataa's Native Tongues collective, which sought to bring a more positive, Afrocentric consciousness to hip-hop. She recorded a demo that landed her a record deal with Tommy Boy, and released her first single, "Wrath of My Madness," in 1988; it was followed by "Dance for Me." In 1989, Latifah's full-length debut, All Hail the Queen, was released to strongly favorable reviews, and the classic single "Ladies First" broke her to the hip-hop audience. In addition to tough-minded hip-hop, the album also found Latifah dabbling in R&B, reggae, and house, and duetting with KRS-One and De La Soul. It sold very well, climbing into the Top Ten of the R&B album charts. Latifah quickly started a management company, Flavor Unit Entertainment, and was responsible for discovering Naughty by Nature. Her 1991 sophomore album, the lighter Nature of a Sista, wasn't quite as popular, and when her contract with Tommy Boy was up, the label elected not to re-sign her. Unfortunately, things got worse from there -- she was the victim of a carjacking, and her brother Lance perished in a motorcycle accident.Latifah emerged with a new sense of purpose and secured a deal with Motown, which issued Black Reign in 1993. Dedicated to her brother, it became her most popular album, eventually going gold; it also featured her biggest hit single, "U.N.I.T.Y.," which hit the R&B Top Ten and won a Grammy for Best Solo Rap Performance. By this point, Latifah had already begun her acting career, appearing in Jungle Fever, House Party 2, and Juice, as well as the TV series The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. In 1993, she was tabbed to co-star in the Fox comedy series Living Single, which ran until 1997; during that period, acting was her primary focus, and she also co-starred as a bank robber in the 1996 film Set It Off. That same year, Latifah was pulled over for speeding and was arrested when a loaded gun and marijuana were discovered in her vehicle; she pled guilty to the charges and was fined.After Living Single was cancelled in 1997, Latifah returned to the recording studio and finally began work on her fourth album. Order in the Court was released in 1998 and found her playing up the R&B elements of her sound in a manner that led some critics to draw comparisons to Missy Elliott; she took more sung vocals, and also duetted with Faith Evans and the Fugees' Pras. The album sold respectably well on the strength of the singles "Bananas (Who You Gonna Call?)" and "Paper." The same year, she appeared in the films Sphere and Living Out Loud, singing several jazz standards in the latter. The Queen Latifah Show, a daytime talk show, debuted in 1999 and ran in syndication until 2001. In November 2002, Latifah ran afoul of the law again; she was pulled over by police and failed a sobriety test, and was placed on three years' probation after pleading guilty to DUI charges. However, this mishap was somewhat overshadowed by her performance in the acclaimed movie musical Chicago, which garnered her Best Supporting Actress nominations from both the Screen Actors Guild and the Golden Globes. In 2004, she released The Dana Owens Album, a covers collection that highlighted her singing skills rather than her rapping skills. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
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