Before there was Queen Latifah the actress, there was Queen Latifah the hip-hop star. She ascended to royal status in rap at a time when the genre revolved around putting women down – and keeping them down. Thanks to her reign, a generation of hip-hop heads learned that women could rule just as well as any man. But Queen Latifah’s legacy as one of the loudest, proudest voices in the game often gets buried by her pile of film awards and acclaim.

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