First Lady

In a black floor-length gown shimmering with diamonds, her voice rich and mellow, Queen Latifah shared the stage with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in late October to celebrate NJPAC’s first decade. “Ten years for NJPAC is a beautiful thing,” she said, “and I’m glad to be here.”

In a black floor-length gown shimmering with diamonds, her voice rich and mellow, Queen Latifah shared the stage with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in late October to celebrate NJPAC’s first decade. “Ten years for NJPAC is a beautiful thing,” she said, “and I’m glad to be here.”
As wide-ranging as NJPAC itself, Latifah—who rose to fame as one of the first female rappers—performed songs made famous by the likes of Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughan, Roberta Flack, and Peggy Lee. Fists bopping to the beat, ponytail swinging, the Newark native sashayed across the stage. As fans shouted “I love you!” she humorously acknowledged them, singing, “I put a spell on you, ’cause you’re mine.”

Dana Owens has come a long way from Shiloh Baptist Church in Bloomfield, where she used to sing in the choir, or Irvington High School, where she performed in a student production of The Wiz. Her early rap albums—projecting a woman’s point of view with as much braggadocio and in-your-face insult as any male rapper—won her a cache of hits and a 1994 Grammy. Her singing, dancing, and acting in Chicago earned her a 2002 Oscar nomination; producing and starring in the HBO movie Life Support brought a 2007 Emmy nomination. With a resume that includes five rap albums, two jazz albums, the 1990s Fox sitcom Living Single, a short-lived talk show, Pizza Hut commercials, and a cosmetics line for Cover Girl—You go, girl!—Queen Latifah, 37, is a certified superstar.

One of the songs she sang at the NJPAC gala (from the movie Hairspray, in which she starred last summer), has a line that says it all, and she delivered it with her signature gusto: “I know where I’m going, and I know where I’ve been.”

Back in high school, where she used to scribble rhymes in her notebook during class, Dana Owens wasn’t yet Queen, but she was already Latifah. A cousin had given her the nickname (Arabic for sensitive) when she was eight. Friends and family still call her Latifah or Dana.

In the early ’80s, you might have run into her at the Burger King where she worked in downtown Newark. Or maybe she helped you find an album when she was a sales clerk at the Wiz record store on Broad Street.

“I never really left [New Jersey], this is where I’m from, this is home,” she says. “I was around to see things change, but I love Newark, period. There’s a kind of energy there. I think the city will come back.”

Latifah’s message of encouragement and empowerment sealed her popularity with young people, especially in urban neighborhoods like the ones she knew growing up in East Orange, Newark, and Irvington. Latifah—whose mother, Rita, is a former high school art teacher, and whose father, Lance, is a former Newark police officer—didn’t embrace rap’s gangsta style. Her second single, “Ladies First,” released in 1989, addressed apartheid, women’s rights, and poverty. (The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named it one of 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.) Latifah won her 1994 Grammy for the single “U.N.I.T.Y.,” an anthem of female self-esteem admonishing abusive men.

As accolades mounted, the moniker of “role model” was thrust upon her. Though Latifah never sought the title, she doesn’t reject it or take it lightly. After her older brother, Lancelot H. Owens, died in a motorcycle crash in 1992, she established a scholarship foundation in his name. It supports students who are academically gifted but financially challenged. Rita Owens, who directs the foundation, sometimes recruits members of Flavor Unit, Latifah’s production and management company, to speak in the public schools.

One of the surprising things about Flavor Unit is how long it’s been around. Latifah and a partner founded it in Jersey City in 1993, relatively early in her career. The company produced Life Support, has a record label, and a roster that has included LL Cool J, Naughty By Nature, and Ja Rule.

“We’re always involved in the schools,” Latifah says. “When Mom calls, we suit up. I want to do more philanthropic stuff. I’ll lend support to anything I can help.”

Uncorking yet another talent, Latifah wrote Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman, a 1999 autobiography, followed in 2002 by a book on self-esteem for teenagers and a 2006 children’s book.

In the whirlwind of fame, Latifah battens down the hatches of her private life. She chooses to remain vague about which Jersey town she lives in. Colts Neck, often reported, is unconfirmed. “Near Red Bank,” she says, adding, almost apologetically, “and L.A. But Jersey’s special. We’ve got a sweet spot between New York and Philly. Sometimes places have too much going on. Jersey’s got it just right. And judging by our property taxes,” she adds with a laugh, “our secret is out.”

The personal/public boundary also involves her name. “When you put that ‘Queen’ in front—that’s work. Queen is the brand.” (In one interview she admitted regret at having used her real name on her first jazz album, in 2004.)

Her buddy list is relatively short. Latifah has known her two closest friends since they were all teenagers. “Pretty much everybody around me I’ve known a long time,” she says. I know a lot of people, but I wouldn’t say I have a lot of friends.”

Latifah is not one to rest on her laurels. “I want to do more of everything, and be better and better at it,” she says. “I want to stay challenged, show my range, and do some things really well.”

Rap remains on her to-do list. “I’m not hanging up my shoes” in that genre yet, she says. Yet of late her focus has been jazz. In September, Flavor Unit/Verve released her second jazz CD, Trav’lin’ Light.

It’s reasonable to wonder whether the people who buy Latifah’s rap albums also dig her forays into jazz. (And do jazz purists accept her crossover efforts?) If you chuckled at the sitcom comedienne, do you feel dutiful reading the message-minded author? Latifah will leave demographics to the demographers. For her, a Latifah fan is a Latifah fan is a Latifah fan.

“They definitely don’t mind me doing anything,” she says. “I think they even desire something new. I started rapping when I was nineteen—they’ve grown too. They want music for somebody in their thirties now. I’m introducing these songs to a new audience.”

Anyway, she has never set her compass by market research. “It wasn’t would I, but rather when I would” venture into other genres, she says. “I wanted to sing songs that suited me. I listened to a lot of stuff and just started picking songs that I had a connection to—that struck me in some kind of emotional way.”

Phoebe Snow’s “Poetry Man,” a favorite of Latifah’s mother, was an easy choice. “She played it around the house all the time,” the singer says. Early in October, during a concert in Connecticut, Latifah’s rendition received an unexpected seal of approval from Snow herself. As Latifah began singing “Poetry Man,” the folk artist spontaneously joined her on-stage to make it a duo.

Trav’lin’ Light peaked at number eleven on Billboard’s 200 album chart in its third week, with “Poetry Man” reaching nine on the hot contemporary jazz songs chart.

“I always sang on my rap albums and was experimental because I enjoy singing so much,” Latifah reflects. “I sang ‘My Funny Valentine’ when I hosted the American Music Awards [in 1995], and I was critically lauded for doing it well. I also sang in [the movie] Living Out Loud, so by the time Chicago came around, I felt ready. Everything has its time and its place.”

Latifah added a few lesser known pieces to the album, such as “Georgia Rose,” with Stevie Wonder accompanying her on harmonica. The tune, written in 1921, turned out to be one of her favorites. “It’s a black love song about someone having pride in herself. It tells her to hold her head up high because she is beautiful. Black women needed to hear that then,” she says. “And they still do.”

Nearly twenty years have passed since Latifah’s musical debut, and she has traveled far from her childhood home on Littleton Avenue in Newark’s North Ward. She even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (the first hip-hop artist to receive one, in 2006). All she knew when she started out was “we were making some sweet-ass music.” In whatever genre she chooses, Queen Latifah can be relied on to trust the seat of her pants.

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