You know, it’s sometimes hard for me to imagine a time when Queen Latifah was synonymous with Afrocentric and feminist raps, and not blockbuster Hollywood movies and Oscar nominations. She has achieved so much and come so far that her rap career, now clearly defunct in lieu of cutting jazz and traditional pop albums, has become an afterthought—even in the consciousness of the most ardent hip-hop fans. When was the last time the Queen spit dope rhymes? Try a decade.

But really, can you blame her for not restricting her talent or opportunities? I sure don’t; she has left her mark as it is. Right from jump she was special, and it showed in her rap debut: 1989’s All Hail the Queen. Trying admirably to run the gamut of vocal and topical range, the most amazing part of it all is that the album is the product of a mere nineteen year old. Talk about a female Illmatic—before the actual Illmatic.

Latifah so belies her years in the album, it’s ridiculous. It’s not even only what she says, even though there’s the classic feminist anthem “Ladies First” (more on that later) and the socially conscious KRS-One-featuring “Evil That Men Do” (in which she wonders, “Tell me, don't you think it's a shame/When someone can put a quarter in a video game/But when a homeless person approaches you on the street/You can't treat him the same?”). It’s how she says it; blessed with a voice that is pregnant with the tone of a caring yet stern mother, and an occasional A-B-A-B/internal rhyming technique, Latifah brings and commands authority and attention in every song, be it with strands of serious topics, or on the dance floor with “Dance for Me” and “Come Into My House”.

Or pure battling. Hear her rip through the vibrant and fast-paced gumbo funk of “Queen of Royal Badness”. Or with Stetsasonic’s Daddy-O in the ragga-tinged “The Pros” where she eats up a female opponent “with [a] verb, [and breaks] her down with [a] noun!” Or being an Equal Opportunity MC a*s-kicker in “A King and Queen Creation”: “Use your imagination, picture this/Any male or female rapper trying to diss/Here for excitement and enticement/With my competitors killed, I go build with my enlightenment!” Yeah, the boys can get it, too!

Latifah’s forte is in the message raps, though; and funny enough, there actually aren’t many here. For a member of the Native Tongues (De La Soul and Prince Paul unofficially admitted her into the fold by appearing in and producing “Mama Gave Birth to the Soul Children”), this is pretty tame stuff in comparison. She might mention she’s a “feminine teacher” here (“A King and Queen Creation”), and mention the Motherland there (“Latifah’s Law”), but nothing really ties together: just the allusion that she is a proud black woman and blah blah blah…until right at the middle, interestingly enough, is the heart of the album, “Ladies First”. Fed with a funky brew of divergent horns and quirky guitars, Latifah raps along with her friend and fellow Native Tongue member Monie Love about female empowerment in a male-dominated society. And while I have mentioned before in my review for Monie’s debut album that she technically outguns the Queen, that does not necessarily mean that the latter doesn’t have bons mots of her own: “Who said the ladies couldn't make it, you must be blind/If you don't believe, well here, listen to this rhyme/Ladies first, there's no time to rehearse/I'm divine and my mind expands throughout the universe!” Simply put: the best QL song not called “U.N.I.T.Y.”

And right in her corner is DJ Mark the 45 King, the guy who helped secure her a record deal along with Fab Five Freddy (her demo, the snail-paced “Princess of the Posse” is included here). No doubt Latifah is a rapper of top-caliber, but the 45 King, with his producing direction, has the glue that sonically joins her raps together. Producing all but four tracks in here, Mark hops from Sly Stone and the Family Stone-sampling funk (“Dance for Me”) to house (“Come Into My House”) and reggae (“Princess of the Posee”, “Wrath of My Madness” and “Inside Out”). Indeed, his diverse landscapes usually dictates Latifah’s vocals, as she sings in a reggae-infused voice in some tracks while employing a normal singing voice in others, like the far more melodic “Come Into My House”. A usually forgotten production impresario, and oftentimes pathetically confined to the fame of Eminem’s “Stan”, Mark the 45 King (along with Daddy-O, Prince Paul, Louis Vega and KRS-One) should not only be commended and remembered for the nicely done work here; he could be arguably credited with channeling Latifah’s talents beyond rap—an urge that would only grow stronger with each release.

But man, I wish I could say there are no shortcomings in All Hail the Queen! For one, Latifah spends 80% of the time boasting. Now, not to say that the Queen should have gone all militant on us, but with a woman of her demonstrated talent, she restricts herself immensely in here. And then there are the remixes: Mark and the guys could have done without one of them. “Dance for Me” is given a terrific update as it chugs infinitely faster than the original, complete with piercing horns and Mark’s frenzied scratching. And a merging of Isaac Hayes’ “Walk On By” and more scratching produces a worthwhile remix of “Wrath of My Madness”. But a prevalence of synth bass does nothing to alleviate the lethargy of “Princess of the Posse”. You know, that song that gave Latifah a record-deal ticket should have remained just that: a demo.

Nevertheless, small blotches aside, All Hail the Queen is quite an excellent effort, marked by Queen Latifah’s precociousness and regal presence and an eclectic sonically resplendence befitting a monarch like her. Sadly, Queen Latifah will never be this focused again as she began to let her myriad talents adversely affect her rapping skill and concentration. But All Hail the Queen, as perhaps the greatest female rap album ever, will forever remain her launching pad for even greater things to come. Who would have known that Will Smith was about to have a female counterpart?

TRACK LISTING:

1. Dance for Me
2. Mama Gave Birth to the Soul Children
3. Come Into My House
4. Latifah’s Law
5. Wrath of My Madness
6. The Pros
7. Ladies First
8. A King and Queen Creation
9. Queen of Royal Badness
10. Evil That Men Do
11. Princess of the Posse
12. Inside Out
13. Dance for Me (Ultimatum Remix)
14. Wrath of My Madness (Soulshock Remix)
15. Princess of the Posse (DJ Mark the 45 King Remix)

REVIEWS IN MY QUEEN LATIFAH SERIES:

All Hail the Queen (1989)
Nature of a Sista' (1991)
Black Reign (1993)
Order in the Court (1998)
Persona (2009)

Recommended: Yes