Queen Latifah on why it’s essential hip-hop is “deconstructed”
When it comes to female MCs in the mainstream nowadays, it is the likes of MC Sha-Rock, MC Lyte, Salt-N-Pepa and Queen Latifah who paved the way for what we see today. Queen Latifah has had an enormous run in her career and is a genuinely versatile woman. From being a gold-selling, Grammy-winning female rapper to an Oscar-nominated actor, there is no denying her talent.
When it comes to female MCs in the mainstream nowadays, there are a fair few to pick from, but it wasn’t always that way. Female MCs are often not taken that seriously until males approve them, so there was a drought in the culture for a long time.
The Newark native broke into the mainstream after the release of her first single, ‘Wrath of My Madness’ and with the backing of Tommy Boy Music, embarked on a European tour and even got to perform at Harlem’s famed Apollo Theatre. Latifah achieved fame fast and even entered the world of business.
That said, she built her empire on the back of hip-hop, but unfortunately, there are some parts of hip-hop culture that Queen Latifah hates and believes need to be “deconstructed” and rebuilt more fairly. During an interview, the New Jersey emcee once expressed how much sexism there was in the music industry during her day.
Speaking about how she wasn’t given the same treatment as male rappers concerning budgets, Latifah explained, “One of the things I faced as a young artist was marketing dollars. The amount of marketing dollars that was spent on my male counterparts wasn’t usually spent on me. I know several female rappers who that happened to at that time, who had to fight to get [the same] marketing dollars spent on them in the same way.”
The ‘U.N.I.T.Y’ rhymer even went as fast as to say that because of budgets and promotion, it’s actually more challenging for women to sell units and be successful in the music industry, stating, “It’s harder to be successful when you’re not being treated the same way as your male counterparts. Pay equity is one thing and feeling safe in the workplace and not having to be sexually intimidated in any sort of way.”
The rapper-turned-actor suggested that sexist record labels and their models need to be torn down and rebuilt so they function for everyone. Detailing this, she told Yahoo!, “There was a status quo for many years.. people were taught and raised with certain things, and that’s the way it was done for quite a while, but that whole way of being done needs to be deconstructed, broken apart, and reconstructed into something brand new that allows everybody to feel [safe].. ’cause it’s not just women.”
Still, this wasn’t the only issue the Girls Trip star raised. She also asserted that the entertainment industry will not progress if racism continues. Emphasising her stance, she clarified, “America will never be as great as it could be until we deal with the truth of our racist attitudes. We have to face that because nobody should be able to come along and pick each other apart based on race or gender or class.”