Born 18
March 1970,
East Orange,
New Jersey,
USA. Rap's first lady,
Queen Latifah, broke through in the late 80s with a style that picked selectively from jazz and
soul traditions. The former
Burger King employee maintained her
early commitment to
answer the misognyist armoury of her
male counterparts, and at the same
time impart musical
good times to all genders. After working as the human beatbox alongside famale rapping crew Ladies
Fresh,
she was
just 18 years old when
She released her debut single, 'Wrath Of My Madness', in 1988. A year later her debut long-player enjoyed fevered reviews: an old, wise head was evident on the top of her
young shoulders Her
name means 'delicate and sensitive' in Arabic, but she has often been anything but in her rapping
rhythms and the messages she sends out through them. The most prominent female rap artist on the scene for close to a
decade,
Queen Latifah has also
made tremendous
inroads in both
movies and television. A role model who takes the responsibility to
heart, Latifah carefully constructed a
fine career for
herself -
one which is constantly moving upward. The lady behind the moniker is
Dana Owens. Owens was
born on March 18th, 1970 in
Newark, New
Jersey. She comes from a
police family (both her father and older brother were cops), which would later influence her rapping style and life
philosophy. Owens witnessed both sides of
black urban life growing up. After a brief stint as a Burger
King employee, the young 18 year-old soon
found herself
making waves in the rap
music scene.
- from imdb.com
