- Born
- Birth nameDana Elaine Owens
- Nickname
- Hip-Hop's First Lady
- Height5′ 10″ (1.78 m)
- Often considered hip-hop's first lady, the woman behind the moniker Queen Latifah was born Dana Elaine Owens on March 18, 1970, in East Orange, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Rita (Bray), a teacher, and Lancelot Owens Sr. She came from a police family-both her father and her older brother were cops-which would later influence her rhyming style and life philosophy. Her brother died in a motorcycle accident in 1992. Owens witnessed both sides of black urban life in the USA while growing up. After a brief stint as a Burger King employee, she soon found herself making waves in the hip-hop music scene.
After working as the human beatbox alongside Ladies Fresh, she was just 18 years old when she broke through in the late 1980s with a style that picked selectively from jazz, reggae, and soul traditions, from beats produced by D.J. Mark the 45 King. Her debut single, "Wrath of My Madness," was released in 1988. A year later, her debut long-player, "All Hail the Queen," enjoyed favored reviews: an old, wise head was evident on the top of her young shoulders. The former Burger King employee maintained her early commitment to answering the misogynist armory of some of her male counterparts and, at the same time, imparted musical good times to all genders. Her name means "delicate and sensitive" in Arabic, but she has often been anything but in her rhymes and the messages she sends out through them. One of the most prominent female hip-hop artists on the scene for over a decade, Queen Latifah has also made tremendous inroads in movies, television, and artist management, with her management company, Flavor Unit, alongside her business partner Shakim Compere. A role model who takes the responsibility to heart, Latifah has carefully constructed a fine career for herself-one that is constantly moving upward.- IMDb Mini Biography By: GLLee90298@yahoo.com
- ChildrenNo Children
- Parents
- Older brother Lance Owens, who was a police officer, died in an accident on the motorcycle Latifah had bought for him as a present. She still wears the motorcycle key around her neck.
- First female rapper to be nominated for an Academy Award.
- She was nicknamed Latifah (Arabic for delicate and sensitive) by a cousin while she was in her teens.
- Arrested for carrying a loaded handgun and marijuana on February 3, 1996.
- As a fledgling rapper in 1987, she was first introduced by 16-year-old Jada Pinkett Smith as the opening act for hip-hop group Public Enemy at Baltimore's Palladium club before she even had a record deal.
- I think it's important to create projects as an actor rather than wait for them. I love being able to take an idea and sell it to a studio.
- I'm pretty much the same but trying to be better every day. I don't think the success has gone to my head. I don't think I'm alienating friends or losing friends.
- I really don't know how to be anyone else, and whenever I try to be anyone else, I fail miserably. Or I disappoint myself. It doesn't build my self-esteem, and it doesn't help me grow me at all.
- I'd like to have and adopt [children]. I think I'd be a great mom, honestly. I don't think I'll have any problem giving them all the love in the world. Discipline will be the hard part.
- I wish every woman would love herself and embrace what she was given naturally.
- Beauty Shop (2005) - $10,000,000
- Bringing Down the House (2003) - $1,000,000
- Chicago (2003) - $325,000
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