Queen Latifah

At 54 years old, Queen Latifah has this physical status:

Dana Elaine Owens (born March 18, 1970), better known as Queen Latifah, is an American rapper, singer, guitarist, actor, and producer.

Born in Newark, New Jersey, she signed with Tommy Boy Records in 1989 and released her debut album All Hail the Queen on November 28, 1989, which featured the hit song "Ladies First."

Nature of a Sista (1991) was her second and last album for Tommy Boy Records. On the FOX sitcom Living Single from 1993 to 1998, Latifah James played Khadijah James.

The single "U.N.I.T.Y." was born on Black Reign (1993), her third album. "Women being a major influence on women," the magazine received a Grammy Award and debuted at #23 on the Billboard Hot 100.

She appeared in the lead role of Set It Off (1996) and then launched her fourth album, Order in the Court, on Motown Records on June 16, 1998.

Latifah gained mainstream success and acclaim with her role in the film Chicago (2002), receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 2004, Latifah's album The Dana Owens Album was released.

Trav'lin' Light and Persona appeared in 2007 and 2009.

She created the Queen Latifah Show, which aired on CBS from late 2013 to early 2015.

She has appeared in a variety of films, including Bringing Down the House (2003), Taxi (2004), Barbershop 2: Back to Business (2005), Last Holiday (2006), Joyful Noise (2012), Girls Trip (2017).

Latifah received critical esteem for her portrayal of blues singer Bessie Smith in the HBO film Bessie (2015), which she co-produced, as well as the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Film.

Carlotta Brown has appeared in the musical drama series Star since 2016. She has long been regarded as one of hip-hop's first feminist feminists.

In 2006, Latifah was a guest on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Latifah's work in music, film, and television has earned her a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Gold Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, two NAACP Image Awards, and over two million dollars.

Early life

Dana Elaine Owens was born in Newark, New Jersey, on March 18, 1970, and she lived mainly in East Orange, New Jersey. She is the niece of Rita Lamae (née Bray; d. 2018), a teacher at Irvington High School (Latifah's alma mater), and Lancelot Amos Owens, a police officer. When Latifah was ten years old, her parents divorced.

Latifah was raised in the Baptist faith. She attended Catholic School in Irvington, New Jersey, and Essex Catholic Girls' High School, but she graduated from Irvington High School. Queen Latifah attended classes at Borough of Manhattan Community College after high school.

In a book of Arabic names when she was eight years old, she discovered her stage name, Latifah (which means "delicate" and "very kind") in Arabic. Latifah, a 5-foot-10-inch (1.78 m) taller person, was a power forward on her high school basketball team. In a grammar school play, she performed the number "Home" from The Wiz.

Personal life

Latifah, a resident of Colts Neck, New Jersey; Rumson, New Jersey; and Beverly Hills, California, was raised in East Orange, New Jersey.

Lancelot Jr., Latifah's older brother, was killed in 1992 in a car accident involving a motorcycle that Latifah had bought for him. According to a 2006 interview, Latifah still wears the key to the motorcycle around her neck, which is evident throughout her appearance in her sitcom Living Single. Latifah was the perpetrator of a carjacking in 1995, which culminated in her boyfriend Sean Moon's assassination.

She was arrested and charged with marijuana use and illegal possession of a loaded handgun in 1996. In Los Angeles County, she was arrested for driving under the influence in 2002. After being arrested, she was placed on three years' probation.

Rita Owens, the actress, died of heart disease on March 21, 2018, a problem she had been fighting since 2004.

Latifah has long refused to comment on rumors surrounding her sexuality and personal life, telling The New York Times in 2008 that "I don't feel like I have to reveal my personal life, and I don't care if people think I'm gay or not." For the first time in her acceptance address for the Lifetime Achievement Award, she publicly acknowledged her partner Eboni Nichols and son Rebel, ending the speech with "Good Pride."

Since her ancestors were identified by name in the US pre-civil war census of 1860, Latifah discovered that her family descended from a line of freed Negros in episode 4 of Finding Your Roots. In pre-war US civil war censuses, slaves were almost never identified by name. Latifah learned the exact date her ancestors became free on October 1, 1792, the date her second ancestor, a woman named 'Jug' or Juggy Owens, was emancipated from slavery.

Foxy Brown's dissatisfaction with King Latifah began in mid-1996, when media reports indicated that Brown was the prime target of Latifah's diss record "Name Callin" on the Set It Off soundtrack. Brown retaliated about Latifah "checking her out" at musical performances, and even challenged Latifah's sexuality in several public radio interviews. Brown released a dissident track titled "10% Disgust," where she criticized Latifah's sexuality and accused her of being jealous.

Latifah responded to Brown by late spring 1998 via a new diss track titled "Name Callin' Part II." Latifah debating Brown's reliance on sex appeal, in which she says Brown must hide her "half-assed" flow by relying on skimpy outfits to mask her "half-assed state." Foxy Brown retaliated with "Talk to Me," a reaction-diss record in which Brown mocked Latifah's television talk show's ratings and went on to make several homophobic remarks to both Latifah and then-newcomer Queen Pen.

Latifah was dubbed "the winner" of the war by a large portion of media. Latifah won the contest with her diss track "Name Callin' Part II," according to the hip-hop publication Ego Trip, and she added that "the lady's still first" in reference to Latifah's 1990 single, "Ladies First" in reference to Latifah's 1990 single "Ladies First" in reference to Latifah's 1990 single, "Latifah." Brown and Latifah reconciled in 2000, and Brown performed her song "Na Na Be Like" on The Queen Latifah Exhibition to show that the truce was true.

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Music career

She began beat boxing for the hip-hop group Ladies Fresh and was an early member of the Flavor Unit, which, at the time, was a band of MCs assembled around producer DJ King Gemini, who made a demo recording of Queen Latifah's rap Princess of the Posse. He gave the recording to Fab 5 Freddy, Yo!'s host. MTV Raps is a cable TV show. Dante Ross, a Tommy Boy Music employee who signed Latifah and released her first album, "Wrath of My Madness," was captivated by the song. In later years, more up-and-coming artists, such as Ice Cube and Lil' Kim, would continue to sample Latifah's music, "Wrath of Kim's Madness" and "You Can't Play With My Yo-Yo," among other things. Latifah has a two-octave vocal range. She is regarded as a sex slave because she has the ability to both rap and sing.

Latifah made her name in hip-hop by rapping about the stigma of being a black woman. Domestic violence, harassment on the streets, and relationship issues were all in her songs. Freddy assisted Latifah in signing with Tommy Boy Records, which released Latifah's first album All Hail the Queen in 1989, when she was nineteen. She appeared on the UK label Music of Life album 1989 – The Hustlers Convention (live). In 1992, she received a Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women. Monie Love's single "Ladies First" became the first collaborative track by two female rappers not in a group. "U.N.I.T.Y." She released the album Black Reign, which was certified Gold in the United States and created the Grammy Award-winning song "U.N.I.T.Y." Order in the Court, co-produced by Ro Smith, now CEO of Def Ro Inc., was her fourth hip-hop album Order in the Court, which was released by Motown Records in 1998. Latifah was also a member of the hip-hop group Native Tongues.

In the Super Bowl XXII halftime performance, Latifah made her first appearance in the event, making her the first rapper to do so.

Latifah's main focus after the court's order was to perform soul music and jazz standards, which she had only used sparingly in her previous hip-hop-oriented albums. The Dana Owens Album, which set the soul/jazz standards, was released in 2004. On July 11, 2007, Latifah performed as the headlining act in a live jazz festival in Los Angeles. She was backed by a 10-piece live orchestra and three backup vocalists, who were billed as the Queen Latifah Orchestra in front of a crowd of more than 12,400 people. "California Dreaming" was one of Latifah's first popular 1960s icons the Mamas & Papas. Trav'lin' Light, a Latifah album, came out later in 2007. Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Joe Sample, George Duke, Christian McBride, and Stevie Wonder were among those who attended. In the "Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album" category, it was nominated for a Grammy.

Latifah and the NJPAC Jubilation Choir recorded the title track on the album Oh, Happy Day: An All-Star Music Celebration in 2009, referring to the Edwin Hawkins Singers' song, which made popular in 1969.

When Latifah was asked if she would make another hip-hop album in 2008, she said no. According to her, the album was already finished and it would be titled All Hail the Queen II. She debuted her album Persona in 2009, the following year. As the album's lead single, "Cue the Rain" was released. In a duet with Tony Bennett for his album Duets II, Queen Latifah sang "Who Can I Turn To" on his album Duets II. Latifah revealed she was working on a new album in January 2012, when she appeared on 106 & Park with Dolly Parton to promote Joyful Noise.

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