Artist:Queen Latifah
Song:U.N.I.T.Y.
Album:Black Reign
In the early days of hip hop, rappers had a hard time just getting radio play. Plus we know now that many rappers had very short careers. Knowing this, Dana Owens decided to have enough irons in the fire so she didn't have to depend on rap. That's worked out well as she last released an album in 2009. She recently starred in the TV series The Equalizer. The 1993 single U.N.I.T.Y. reached #23 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was her biggest hit and should have been bigger. But radio stations were reluctant to play it. She was born Mar. 18, 1970 in Newark, NJ but she grew up in East Orange. Her parents divorced when she was ten. After graduating from Irvington High School, Dana attended Borough of Manhattan Community College. She found the name Latifah in a book of Arabic names meaning delicate. Dana started out in 1988 beat boxing with the group Ladies Fresh. She was an original member of Flavor Unit, a group of MCs led by DJ King Gemini. He made a demo of Dana performing Princess of the Posse and he gave it to Yo! MTV Raps host Fab 5 Freddy. He gave it to Tommy Boy A&R rep Dante Ross and he signed Dana to a record deal as Queen Latifah. Her first single was Wrath of My Madness in 1989. She was 19 when her debut album All Hail the Queen was released in 1989. She rapped mostly about issues faced by black women. Her 1989 single Ladies First featuring Monie Love reached #5 on the Rap chart. But crossing over to pop was a different story. Tommy Boy was a rap label and radio stations were still reluctant to play rap though MTV embraced it. So after two albums on Tommy Boy, Dana switched to Motown who were perceived as Mainstream R&B. Her first album for Motown was Black Reign in 1993 and the first single U.N.I.T.Y. reached #23 on the Billboard Hot 100. It reached #7 on the R&B Singles chart and #2 on the Rap chart. Dana wrote most of the songs including U.N.I.T.Y. Most of the album was produced by Sidney "S.I.D." Reynolds. But U.N.I.T.Y. was produced by Kay Gee of Naughty by Nature and he wrote the song with Dana. The song is based on the song Unity by Desmond Dekker. And the main sample is Message from the Inner City by the jazz band The Crusaders. Crusaders pianist Joe Sample got a songwriting credit and the sax solo is by Crusaders saxophonist Wilton Felder. There are no Queen Latifah comps available but Black Reign is available on CD. Dana continued to record. But she already had gotten into acting and starred in the FOX sitcom Living Single from 1993-98. And that's what she has been doing since then. Recording has taken a back seat. And she has sung jazz standards. She last released an album in 2009 and that was for the jazz label Verve. She has had great success in acting. She got a Best Supporting Actress nomination for the 2002 film Chicago. Her other big film was the 2007 film Hairspray. Her latest success was starring in the CBS reboot of the 80s series The Equalizer. That show ran from 2021-25. She is currently working on a biopic of herself that could take a long time to produce. And she is a judge on season 30 of The Voice. She claimed on one red carpet that new music is in the works. Maybe she'll have more on that when she is inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame shortly. Here's the video for U.N.I.T.Y. by Queen Latifah.
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