Artist: Queen Latifah
Best Album: All Hail the Queen
Best Song: Ladies First
This Letter Could Have Been About: Q-tip, A Tribe Called Quest

Why I’m Writing About This Artist: Honestly?  Watch the video first.  That’s why I’m writing about Queen Latifah.  Queen Latifah wasn’t the first female rapper, or the most talented female rapper (she gets upstaged by Monie Love on Ladies First, her best song,) but what she indisputably was was rap’s first and most outspoken feminist.  She may still be rap’s most outspoken feminist, actually.  Throw in a heavy dose of pro-blackness and African nationalism (check out the cover for All Hail the Queen) and the lady would have been a force to be reckoned with even if she hadn’t had tons of talent.  By now she’s got a Grammy and an Oscar or two and has taken over every medium she’s ever worked in, so she’s got nothing left to prove.  But hiphop had her first.

Have a video!:

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