I've noticed a sexist trend on social media these days where people will compare the era of Latifah, Lyte, Monie Love, etc. to today's crop of mainstream women rappers like Cardi, Meg & Latto, saying something about how back in the day, female rappers didn't need to make themselves sex objects to be respected, etc. Aside from being prudish, a double standard, & just plain incorrect, this view also betrays an un-nuanced understanding of what Latifah was all about.
It's true that on her debut album, All Hail the Queen, Latifah does not rap about sex. But it's not because she's a prude. (Although on "Princess of the Posse" she does profess to "show the skeezers the meaning of humility.") It's because (1) she was a closeted lesbian at the time & was probably worried about hurting her numbers if she rapped about her sexuality, and (2) with respect to all feminine archetypes, the one she's most interested in here is mother. The track "Mama Gave Birth to the Soul Children" is the purest expression of this: Latifah plays the part of mother who birthed the hiphop scene. All of this is tied into the Afrocentric philosophy on display here (it was trendy to be Afrocentric in NYC hiphop at the time, but Latifah's comes off as sincere). In many traditional societies, the nurturing role is not necessarily played by the biological mother of the child; all women in the village contribute to that part together. Separating the role of mother from heterosexual reproduction, Latifah calls herself "Mama Zulu" & ends the song by saying "They weren't born from the body, they were born from the soul."
That's not to say that All Hail the Queen is entirely sexless. The rap/house music fusion experiment (another product of its time) "Come Into My House," though not explicit, certainly has an erotic charge--right down to its title--but notably does not specify gender. On "Wrath of My Madness," she bluntly rejects male romantic advances in favor of queenly power: "Brothers catch my eye with little hijinks, like eye winks/Dying to have a lover of my likeness/So release all your shyness, just call me your highness/and feel the wrath of my madness." A few bars later, she clarifies that "The brothers give only hugs." The hints were there all along, & shame on all of us that this is as frank as Latifah felt comfortable being about her sexuality.
The album is mostly produced by Latifah's DJ Mark the 45 King, & he brings a consistent, mostly uptempo, horn sample-driven sound. At the time this arrangement was normal, but there are a handful of guest producers: Prince Paul contributes a super funky, Sesame Street-sampling headtrip with a prominent vibraslap (!) on the De La collaboration "Mama Gave Birth to the Soul Children"; Louis Vega contributes a thick, noisy sample collage on "Latifah's Law," which the emcee's vocals have a hard time overcoming; KRS-One samples Gil Scott-Heron & lays down his signature overdriven drum machine on "Evil That Men Do." Enough respect to Kris the legend, but the best guest producer award goes to Daddy-O for the surprisingly modern-sounding, slow-tempo deep dubstyle reggae groove of "The Pros," which creates an ego-trip showcase for both Latifah & Daddy-O guest starring on the mic. It's one of 4 tracks on the album that showcase the heavy reggae influence that was common in NYC hiphop at the time, along with "Wrath of My Madness," "Princess of the Posse," & "Inside Out."
As an emcee, Latifah's influences are obvious. She uses a flow very reminiscent of KRS-One on both the collaboration "Evil that Men Do" & on the single "Wrath of My Madness." You can hear shades of Big Daddy Kane & Rakim in there as well. For this reason, I think Black Reign is a better album musically & vocally--Latifah had shed some of the imitative qualities evident here & come fully into her own. But All Hail the Queen is a huge debut full of understated wordplay & complex rhetoric, & should be respected to the fullest.
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