Just want to share an old review of Queen Latifah's NOAS. ('Member when she used to spit insteada sing?)
Queen Latifah
Nature Of A Sistah
Tommy Boy Music (1991)
Before the make-up endorsements and acting gigs, Queen Latifah was lovely and lyrically loose but always lady-like on the mic. Never was this more evident than on Nature Of A Sistah, her second full-length for Tommy Boy. It wasn’t as raw as All Hail the Queen, but it was more polished, mature and more successful—it even went platinum, I think. Dana Owens was the queen of the legendary Native Tongues collective (Monie Love, Jungle Brothers, Tribe, De la Soul, et al). NOAS had a nice up-tempo almost hip-house feel to it thanks to production studs DJ Mark the .45 King, Kay Gee (Naughty by Nature), the legendary house producer Little Louie Vega, plus QL herself.
NOAS reminds me of why so many female MCs today just flat-out suck. QL was able to flow without bragging about how good her coochie was. She didn’t rap about being the “baddest bitch.” She didn't rap about her heel game, how triflin' every black male is, money or any of the typical constructs female emcees get caught up in. Yet she still managed to spit game, be topical, be lyrical, be hood, be woman, be dope.
And somehow, she managed to keep her clothes on—for whole albums, in fact. Just consider this, my favorite NOAS quotable from the title cut: “Who’s a king? Who’s a Queen? Who’s trying to bank?/I see myself as a queen but it ain’t for rank/It’s for all, not one, not for income/It’s for knowing who and where we descend from.”
Concepts ‘n’ flows, ladies. Concepts ‘n’ flows... Relax and take note.
Queen brought more soul than a closet fulla Shaq’s shoes. Queen started singing a little bit on NOAS, but her voice wasn’t half bad. In fact, “How do I love thee” is one of the sexier songs to come out of ‘90s hiphop. Other NOAS standouts include: “'Nuff of The Ruff Stuff,” “Had It Up to Here” and the title cut, “Nature of a Sistah”. Queen Latifah made afrocentricity and strong sistahood bang on wax.
Hope somebody brings it back soon.
