"Who You Callin' a B!tch?!": The Queen Becomes Gangsta Conscious

Queen Latifah must have had every reason to go hard on her third album. From movie and TV roles (e.g., Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Jungle Fever, House Party 2, etc.) to her insinuatingly “commercial” sophomore album laden with pop melodies and R&B influences (1991’s Nature of a Sista’), that must have aroused from some quarters of the hip-hop community the scariest verdict any rapper in the Golden Age could receive: she was “selling out.” Or going “soft.” Or losing her “street cred.” Take your pick—it felt like Latifah was drifting away from rap. And the death of her older brother Lance, sadly with the very bike that Latifah had bought for him as a birthday present, sure did not help matters any.

So I could imagine that with a new home (she switched from Tommy Boy to Motown) and a new record in 1993’s Black Reign, she was gladly moving on to a new chapter, and the celebratory opener “Black Hand Side” indicates that. Apparently that also entailed donning the baggy clothes and sporting a scowl on the album cover. Wow, Latifah is “gangsta” now? Same goes for the beats. For lack of a better term, these are the most aggressive instrumentals the Queen would ever work with—thanks to people like Kay Gee of Naughty by Nature, Tony Dofat, S.I.D.…and herself. Remember this is 1993, when prominent basslines and concrete drums ruled East Coast rap. And Black Reign is no different. Save for her usual reggae dipping (“Weekend Love”) and the jazz-singing dedication to her departed brother (“Winki’s Blues”), Black Reign is strictly boom-bap.

And that works to her advantage—on the brag-rap tip. Thought she was bad on the mic in her first two albums? Try listening to “No Work” and “Bring the Flavor” where Latifah conducts savage evisceration; or in “Can’t Understand” where she is taking female MCs and cheating lovers out of commission. “Rough…” is especially powerful, as she is joined by the boys (try Treach of Naughty by Nature, Heavy D, KRS-One and Tony Rebel), and she sounds just as menacing as they are over the thunderous bass-n-drum-heavy track: “You’re looking for a friend to the end, then that’s me/But if you’re looking for a gangsta b!tch, then that’s exactly what you’re gonna see!” You really want to mess with the Queen?

But by far the best songs in Black Reign are the message tracks. Finally, Queen Latifah has honed her skills as a socially conscious and Afrocentric feminist—one that takes no prisoners. You cannot help but smile and nod your head as you listen to the Queen chastise those who eschew unprotected sex (“Coochie Bang…”), or about the lessons of life she had learned from her mother (“Listen 2 Me”), or ensure that being a rap star shouldn’t dissuade the average brother to approach her (“Superstar”). A far cry from the loose strands swimming around more focused moments in previous outings, the situation is quite the reverse in Black Reign.

And that is why two of her greatest songs can be found here. Of course, one of them—“U.N.I.T.Y”—has gone down in history as Latifah’s signature song and rap’s greatest feminist anthem, and for good reason. Borrowing a reposeful sax-laden jazz slice from The Crusaders’ “Message from the Inner City”, Latifah is at a creative peak, with a multi-layered chorus featuring her singing and that now-legendary line—“Who you calling a b!tch?!”—echoing the powerful message in the song: a cry to young black men to quit the misogyny and show love and respect to their women. The personal account she gives in the first verse is especially poignant—and humorous:

…one day I was walking down the block
I had my cutoff shorts on right ‘cause it was crazy hot
I walked past these dudes when they passed me
One of 'em felt my booty, he was nasty
I turned around red, somebody was catching the wrath
Then the little one said, “Yeah, me b!tch!” and laughed
Since he was with his boys, he tried to break fly
Huh! I punched him dead in his eye, and said "Who you calling a b!tch?"

And better believe she does not let the women off the hook, either. “You wear a rag around your head and you call yourself a ‘Gangsta B!tch’ now that you saw Apache's video!” she says about a girl buckling under peer pressure to be “bad”…and paying the price with an ugly scar across her face.

“U.N.I.T.Y.” certainly deserves much props, but the other song, “Just Another Day” often gets overlooked. As much as I believe the former is the best song Latifah ever did, this one has to be a close second, and I would have no problem with anyone having it the other way round. I mean, goodness gracious, just how on earth did S.I.D. come up with this beautiful windy and echoing soundscape? Well, whatever he did, it sure does the Queen’s lyrics a lot of good; it is a day of observance of her New Jersey neighborhood where, despite the mayhem she witnesses, notes: “I can't stop, without y'all, I’d be nothing/No wrecking, no checks and no rhyming, no cutting/No stages from pages, no phones, no beepers/No reason to put ‘Queen’ in front of the name ‘Latifah’!” Add the sultrily sung chorus, and you have a winner: a hometown hero that hasn’t forgotten where she comes from.

But that brings me back to the “gangsta rap” influence that permeates Black Reign. Sure, Latifah wanted to prove that she was still “down,” and gangsta rap was simply too big at the time to not adopt at least elements from it. But does she have to try so hard? I mean, for a woman who once said that she does not curse because her mom told her not to, she drops quite a number of N- and F-bombs in this album. Is that what to truly expect from a Queen?

Plus, there is quite some filler in Black Reign. I’m sorry, but Queen Latifah is still not the female version of LL Cool J with a track like “Mood Is Right” (Its reggae counterpart “Weekend Love” is awesome, though…). And those two interludes—“The D.J.’s and “Just a Flow”—could have been left out.

Faults aside, Black Reign became Latifah’s all-round crowning achievement. Finally the sales were commensurate with the acclaim, earning a gold plague from the RIAA (the first female solo rapper to do so) as well as winning the 1994 Grammy for Rap Solo Performance for “U.N.I.T.Y.”. She definitely deserved it. In Black Reign, Latifah is rejuvenated and revamped, her rapping and singing noticeably improved. Plus, at that time, in the land of female rappers, no one was messing with this chick on the lyrical tip, period (yeah, that includes Miss Ruffneck herself, MC Lyte). In the wake of the album’s success, the doors were now wide open for future femcees like Da Brat, Lil’ Kim, Foxy Brown and Eve to enjoy even greater success than Latifah, unfortunately with barely a fourth of the talent, charisma and personality this wonderful woman had. And sure enough, Queen Latifah would begin to drift away again, beginning her entry in earnest into the TV and movie world while her rapping skills were used less and less often. It sucks, because this album should definitely be getting a lot more props than it is getting now. It is almost like as if it has been forgotten, a hip-hop relic of the early '90s. But hey, at least she made such a powerful statement in Black Reign. All lady wordsmiths—the five that are left now—should kiss the Queen’s feet in homage for that one.

TRACK LISTING:

1. Black Hand Side
2. Listen 2 Me
3. I Can’t Understand
4. Rough…
5. The D.J.’s (Interlude)
6. Bring the Flavor
7. Coochie Bang…
8. Superstar
9. No Work
10. Just a Flow (Interlude)
11. Just Another Day…
12. U.N.I.T.Y.
13. Weekend Love
14. Mood Is Right
15. Winki’s Theme

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)