Reigning in Many Courts

Queen Latifah is catching the last bit of winter sunlight on the Burbank set of Fox’s Sunday night show “Living Single.” Wearing a sweat shirt and no trace of makeup, she looks much like a streetwise young woman from a tough New Jersey neighborhood (which she is), and not the successful publishing executive she portrays on the sitcom.

But playing a thriving businesswoman isn’t exactly a reach for Latifah , whose real name is Dana Owens. To be sure, the 23-year-old rap artist wears many hats, both literally--she’s one of designer Todd Oldham’s favorite clients--and figuratively. Besides her TV career, she played a nurse in the Michael Keaton movie “My Life,” and is also CEO of the Flavor Unit management firm whose artists include Naughty by Nature. And Latifah--whose adopted Arabic name means delicate and kind--recently released her third and most introspective rap album, “Black Reign.” Along with her usual tough-minded raps, including the hit single “U.N.I.T.Y.,” much of the album pays tender tribute to her older brother , Lance Owens, a police officer who was killed in an off-duty motorcycle accident in 1992.

In this interview, she spoke about the new album, the death of her brother and the state of rap today.

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Question: With rap’s requisite brava do, did it feel risky to put out such a personal album?

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Answer: This album was actually kind of a release. My brother’s death played a big part because he died only a couple of months before I did the album. I intentionally chose to (record it) at that time . . . and it helped me just to deal with his death.

Q: Your father is also a former police officer. Having family members on the force, how do you view rap songs that attack police officers?

A: I see both sides. I’ve seen abuse, and I’ve been the victim of police who abuse their authority. When people use their badge in a way that it shouldn’t be used and treat people like everybody is some kind of criminal and look at every young black man like he’s a killer, I have a problem. And it’s not just white cops who behave like that; all kind of cops have this attitude.

On the other side, you’ve got cops getting shot all the time. You got people who don’t respect them at all. A cop can’t be nice to everybody. They’re fighting criminals. They’ve got some serious bad guys, who have the attitude of kill or be killed.

But I would like to see police forces stepping to the officers who they know are abusive and personally changing their attitudes. When rappers say, “Kill the cops,” (officers have) to deal with it, because they haven’t done anything to make sure that their fellow officers are changing their behavior.

Q: In “U.N.I.T.Y.,” you take men to task for casually referring to women as “bitches” and “ho’s.” Why do you think this theme has struck such a chord?

A: I guess people are just ready to have an anti-”bitch” record. People are sick of it. It’s not even just women, it’s women and men. Some guys are sick of being prejudged by women who think they’re going to disrespect them or are only out for one thing. There are men with values out there. . . . I’m not nit-picking. If you’re playing around, it’s cool. But if someone’s trying to hurt me by saying “bitch,” I’m not gonna stand for that.

Some of these brothers out here just don’t know how to act. I know a lot of young brothers out here who put their hands on their women (and beat them up). Young boys. They’re boys! They need to figure out a better way to express themselves, and that’s just the bottom line.

Q: In the same song, you have a line, “There’s plenty of people with triggers ready to pull it, why you trying to jump in front of the bullet?” Usually that’s a sentiment reserved for men, but you dedicate it to the “ladies.”

A: I know a lot of young girls who saw a “Gangsta Bitch” video by Apache and then flipped and became gangsta bitches and thought they were hard-core. I ran the streets from 15 years old on . . . and that taught me a lot. You’re not hard-core ‘cause you want to be. It’s necessity. You had to be (hard) because of where you were from. It’s not something you (should) aspire to be. Aspire to be a doctor or a lawyer but not a (gangster).

I want them to understand that they’re going to get through all this mess and grow up and graduate from high school. You go to college or go to work. And the damage that you’ve done in high school, when you go around and cut somebody’s face, they’re gonna wear that for life.

Q: What differences do you see between living in Los Angeles and New Jersey?

A: This is a slave state as far as I’m concerned. There’s a lot of classism, racism--more so then where I’m from because we all live around each other so we have to tolerate one another to a point. Everybody gets to be so spread out here so they don’t have to deal with people. The dividing lines are just too thick for me.

Q: Where do you see your career heading five years from now?

A: I’ll probably still be doing “Living Single,” and I hope to be married with children. I want a big family so they can be the toughest family on the block. They can jump everybody else’s kids (she giggles). You know the family around the corner that had 11 kids and you couldn’t (mess) with them, even if they were wrong? That’s gonna be my family.

Q: Do you feel more pressure to prove your street credibility to your fans now that you’re on a weekly sitcom?

A: I don’t have to prove anything to anybody. I prove it through my actions. I’m down for mine, and people know that.