By Malice Intended

Before she found fame as an actress and singer, Dana Owens was a rapper.  In some alternate reality, she established an extensive catalog worthy of her talents.  As it stands, her rap career ultimately proved to be a launching pad for her much more fruitful career as an actress.  That does not, however, diminish her place in Hip-Hop.  As the Golden era reached its apex, the budding afro centric movement in Hip-Hop had a decidedly male bent.  It was sorely in need of a strong female presence to balance things out.  Enter the Queen of Royal Badness.

Released in the 4^th quarter of 1989 and boasting a very impressive roster of producers and guest appearances, All Hail the Queen arrived at exactly the right time.  Not merely a derivative cash-in of a current fad, it used the conscious sentiments of the time to frame the attitude and presence of its central star: Queen Latifah.  She was quite unlike anything that rap music had ever seen.  Latifah didn’t look to shock the listener into submission via the more militant imagery of Public Enemy; she offered a brand of Hip-Hop afro centrism that was refined yet uncompromising. 

Producers Prince Paul, DJ Mark the 45 King, Krs-1, and Daddy-O (of Stetsasonic) provide musical backing that forms a tapestry every bit as colorful as the attire of the times.  The album is rife with varied funk/soul samples, break beats, and pronounced Reggae influences.  Latifah’s Reggae style singing was unobtrusive and surprisingly more authentic than the faux offerings that were in vogue at the time.  Her rhymes were suitably complex but not inaccessible to the casual listener (backpackers take note). Her attitude was confident, yet warm and inviting.  She didn’t bow down to her male contemporaries, but also didn’t see the need to match their intimidation factor.   

All Hail the Queen was neither as popular nor as celebrated as some of Latifah’s later releases, making its relevance at the time of its release easy to overlook.  It was released into a marketplace that didn’t have the internet to contend with, and to fans that had very little awareness of Billboard chart positions and sales figures.  It didn’t traffic in profanity, sexuality or glorification of criminality and conspicuous consumption.  It was a lively and enjoyable Long Player that showed range and personality, serving as a solid example of a musical genre that was just coming into its own artistically.

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