Queen Latifah
Queen Latifah can be booked through this site. Queen Latifah entertainment booking site. Queen Latifah
is available for public concerts and events. Queen Latifah can be booked for
private events and Queen Latifah can be booked for corporate events and
meetings through this Queen Latifah booking page.
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up the performance or appearance fee for Queen Latifah, we act as YOUR agent in
securing Queen Latifah at the best possible price. We go over the rider for
Queen Latifah and work directly with Queen Latifah or the responsible agent for
Queen Latifah to secure the talent for your event. We become YOUR agent,
representing YOU, the buyer.
In fact, in most cases we can negotiate for
the acquisition of Queen Latifah for international dates and newer promoters
providing you meet professional requirements.
Queen Latifah Biography
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
Written by Steve Huey