Queen Latifah She's A Queen: A Collection Of Hits CD

Additional Tracks

Personnel includes: Queen Latifah, Monie Love, Faith Evans, Tha' Rayne.
Producers include: Kenny Flav, Queen Latifah, Prakazrel Pras Michael, Darryl "Big Baby" McClary, Kay Gee.
"Go Head" was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Female Rap Solo Performance.
Personnel: Queen Latifah (vocals, background vocals); Ivan Matias, Andrea Martin (vocals); Ken Lewis (guitar); Clark Gayton (trombone); Gordon Chambers (piano); Prakazrel "Pras" Michel (keyboards, drums); Kendu Dickens, Jerry Duplessis (drums); Organized Noize (programming, drum programming); Big Tank, Jaz-A-Belle, Lil' Mo, Tha Rayne (background vocals).
Audio Mixers: Dexter Simmons; Darryl "Big Baby" McClary; Paul Falcone; Keith Cohen; Patrick Dillett; Prakazrel "Pras" Michel; Ron Allaire; Warren Riker.
Recording information: Chung King, New York, NY; Doppler Recording Studio, GA; Quad Studios, New York, NY; Skyline Recordings, New York City?Battery Studio, New Y; The Cutting Room Studios, New York, NY; The Hit Factory, New York, NY; Trans Continentaial Studio, FL.
Arrangers: Gordon Chambers; Kim Clark; Queen Latifah; Kevin Batchelor.
Even though she'd been a household name in the music and film world for nearly 15 years, by 2002 Queen Latifah still didn't have a compilation of her own. Then again, since she'd spent so much time in the world of television and film, Latifah had only released one album since 1993's Black Reign. Finally Motown gave her the career treatment with She's a Queen: A Collection of Hits, a brief collection that has most of her best performances but can't escape its perfunctory air -- there are no liner notes, only one fuzzy picture, and an overall lack of design quality. Motown did make a small gesture, though, by licensing three tracks from her first two albums (originally on Tommy Boy), including two of her most powerful performances: "Ladies First" and "Latifah's Had It up 2 Here." The compilation skips over the delightful De la Soul feature "Mama Gave Birth to the Soul Children," but does provide the best of her strong material from the early '90s like "U.N.I.T.Y." and "Just Another Day...," plus "Paper," her intriguing 1998 redo of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," produced by Pras. The new tracks, however, won't join the Queen Latifah pantheon like the rest already have; "Go Head" finds her aping Missy Elliott in both sound and delivery, and there isn't much to recommend the others, either. With just a little more effort, Motown could've made this Queen Latifah collection a brilliant summation of her career; just as it had for almost 40 years, the label seemed more interested in reaching the charts than giving proper due to the artists who've already had success. ~ John Bush
Although the film industry has widely celebrated Queen Latifah's many memorable screen appearances (LIVING OUT LOUD, BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE, and particularly her Oscar-nominated role in CHICAGO), the New Jersey-born-and-bred hip-hop icon finally receives her musical due with this concise retrospective collection. SHE'S A QUEEN delivers 12 memorable tracks, from 1989's groundbreaking "Ladies First" single and the melodic "Set It Off" (from the movie of the same name) to the grooves of "Paper" (a reworking of "I Heard Through the Grapevine") and the smooth, previously unreleased title track. As this compilation reveals, Latifah has always had a commanding presence and clear identity, using her formidable voice and lyrical flow in the service of positive messages. Latifah's strengths are best exemplified in the deft single "Just Another Day," a track that sums up her undeniable appeal as a performer.