Within the roughly 30 years since her recording debut, Queen Latifah, nee Dana Owens, has surpassed description as a multi-hyphenate, to exponential-hyphenate. The New Jersey born-and-bred rapper/singer/actor/label-owner/producer/magnificence ambassador/TV host/entrepreneur was a part of the primary class of hip-hop artists to efficiently transition to appearing, touchdown her personal hit TV sequence inside the first 5 years of her profession. By the mid-’90s, Latifah was identified extra as an actress than as a rapper. By the 2000s, she was generally known as an actress and entrepreneur, and the music aspect of her identification more and more grew to become a footnote as she usually added new accomplishments to her ever-expanding record. However that is unfair to Latifah’s musical expertise and legacy. She’s executed star-level mastery throughout a spread few of her friends in music can rival, and none have really matched.
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One in every of hip-hip’s golden period MCs and an early voice for ladies who held their floor within the male-dominated area, Queen Latifah was additionally one of many early aware voices in rap, celebrating Black feminism even earlier than she realized that’s what it was. Musically, Queen Latifah’s albums pushed past slim definitions of hip-hop, with dancehall/reggae, home music and jazz-influenced tracks she’d circulate over with each singing and rhyming. “I wanted to sing to (rap music), I wanted more music in it, and I wanted more harmony,” Latifah as soon as defined. “Not too many people were doing anything like that.”
Parts of her music, on reflection, had been superior for somebody who hit the scene at 19 years previous. 1994’s “U.N.I.T.Y,” from her third studio album, Motown’s Black Reign, was a clarion name in opposition to the pervasive misogyny in hip-hop tradition. Latifah’s seminal anthem earned her the primary rap Grammy awarded to a girl, and has been the topic of articles and scholarship on Black feminism in music, hip-hop, and media basically for the final 25-plus years. Impressively, it may additionally simply have dropped at the moment, within the panorama of the #MeToo motion and rallying cries to #ProtectBlackWomen.
As arduous as Latifah all the time delivered as a rapper, she proved herself to be equally malleable as a singer, first on hooks and choose tracks on her albums, then because the voice behind Residing Single’s theme music. In truth, she was in her college refrain and centered on being a vocalist earlier than she began rapping, and as her appearing profession grew, she took alternatives to stretch her vocal show. The expectation may need been for Latifah to suit a up to date city really feel, or at the least grownup up to date, however she explored the smoother aspect of her musical persona with pop requirements, blues, and jazz. She shocked audiences as lounge singer Liz Bailey in 1998’s Residing Out Loud along with her rendition of Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life,” a beloved however notoriously tough customary. A number of years later, the Queen garnered an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Large Momma Morton in 2002’s Chicago.
Bolstered by the reception of her efficiency because the big-voiced Morton, Latifah determined it was time to enter her personal jazz age; 15 years after her debut and ten years after planting a flag for ladies in hip-hop with “U.N.I.T.Y.,” she launched The Dana Owens Album on her Flava Unit/A&M label. The LP featured covers of jazz and soul requirements originated by artists like Dinah Washington and Al Inexperienced, together with a brand new rendition of “Lush Life.” It was profitable for such a stark departure, debuting at No. 11 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, No. 16 on the High 200, and incomes a Grammy nod in 2005 for Greatest Jazz Vocal album.
Three years later, she returned with Trav’lin Mild. If The Dana Owens Album was a toe within the water, Trav’lin Mild was the plunge. Now with storied jazz label Verve Data, Latifah was noticeably extra snug within the function of chanteuse, recording with dwell session gamers, increasing her repertoire to incorporate huge band choice. This time she launched the album as Queen Latifah as an alternative of Dana Owens, embracing jazz as a part of her full artistry, as an alternative of one thing she needed to seperate. The LP debuted at No. 1 on Billboard Jazz charts, the place it stayed for 3 weeks, and was nominated for the 2008 Greatest Authentic Pop Vocal Grammy (jazz requirements in Grammy-speak).
Drawing a line between hip-hop and jazz wasn’t novel on the time of Latifah’s leap. Quincy Jones has repeatedly pointed to bebop as a sonic and religious precursor to rap, and jazz/rap fusion was en vogue for a number of years within the early 90s amongst teams like A Tribe Known as Quest, Digable Planets, and Gang Starr. Later, jazz’s affect continued via acts like hip-hop band The Roots and members of their Soulquarians collective. However that connection is concerning the music: instrumentation, rhythm, tempo. Sonic DNA shared between the 2 genres.
An MC crossing the divide to jazz vocalist is one thing, at the least for now, by which Queen Latifah is singular. Maybe essentially the most stunning factor is that her jazz albums aren’t novelty tasks, pursued by a star who’s made sufficient cash and has sufficient clout to entertain a long-time dream of singing. Jazz purists maintain the style up as a extremely unique musical society which grants entry solely to the few who perceive the canon of the “golden age,” however even by these inflexible requirements, Latifah, whose father was a trustworthy listener to NY’s WGBO Jazz 88 (now the one jazz-dedicated station left in NYC), passes muster. Dana Owens is a singer – a talented one – and seasoned professionals acknowledge her excessive musical IQ and vocal dexterity.
“Technically she can pretty much do anything she needs to with her voice,” vocal arranger John Clayton instructed Jazz Occasions after working with the Queen on Trav’lin Mild. “That has not only to do with range and intonation, but also shading and color. And since she’s an actress, she knows how to sell the lyric. There’s a lot of good singers out there who haven’t grasped that.”
Though Queen Latifah lately turned 50, her formal foray into jazz repertoire didn’t symbolize a definitive pivot for the artist; a brand new path dictated by age. Hip-hop itself is sort of 50, and the idea of growing old out of the style is antiquated. In 2009 she launched Persona, a return to Latifah as MC and experiment in style bending and mixing, combining hip-hop, soul, pop and rock with blended success. Extra lately, she confirmed as much as the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards in trademark Latifah model; driving in on a motorbike to rock the mic. La can nonetheless spit scorching fireplace as effortlessly as she belts a word. The wonder is, she’s confirmed she doesn’t have to decide on between the 2.
This text was first printed in 2020. We’re republishing it at the moment in celebration of Queen Latifah’s birthday. Black Music Reframed is an ongoing editorial sequence on uDiscover Music that seeks to encourage a unique lens, a wider lens, a brand new lens, when contemplating Black music; one not outlined by style parameters or labels, however by the creators. Gross sales and charts and firsts and rarities are vital. However artists, music, and moments that form tradition aren’t all the time best-sellers, chart-toppers, or quick successes. This sequence, which facilities Black writers writing about Black music, takes a brand new have a look at music and moments which have beforehand both been missed or not had their tales instructed with the right context.
