All Hail the Queen

A classic debut containing a bonafide anthem in Ladies First. Some say this was the pinnacle of Latifah's career. Those people have obviously not seen Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade.

No album is more 1989. It's frozen in a block of 100% pure 1989. It's produced by George H.W. Bush on the deck of the Exxon Valdez. So yes, it's all dated to buggery, but that is not that bad in itself; listening to this has some of the joys of archaeology. However, it's also very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very repetitititititititititititive. All the house beats sound exactly the same. All the raps sound the same, with the sole theme that of Queen Latifah being a good rapper. That makes one good song, but this is meant to be a bloody album. A second listen proves more appealing than the first, but it's still one fine song done 12 times. Yes, one fine song done 12 times. Indeed, one fine song done 12 times. Truly, one fine song done 12 times. In frankness, one fine song done...

I think a lot of folks get down on this album for being dated, which it is, but so is a lot of the music on this list. I don't think that dated hip-hop is any worse inherently than dated rock or dated jazz. What's more, this album comes from a singular moment in hip-hop when sampling was wide open and DJs had the equipment to take large samples from popular music. Not all of the rapping on this album has aged well, but Queen Latifah has unquestionable skill on the mike, and its on full display here. The early synthesis of rap with house music is also really cool. This is certainly not the best rap album I've gotten on this list, but it has a case as the most underrated rap album that I've gotten. 4/5

Shit

What's that? You're all out of Neneh Cherry? How am I going to relive the salad days of 1989? Oh, you have some Queen Latifah? Well that will substitute nicely.

When she's on, she's on, but there are too many tracks that don't work. This did not age well at all. Best track: Dance for Me

09/15/2022 I’ll probably say this hundreds of times throughout this project, but I am not an 80s girl, and late 80s/early 90s dance hall/house music is one of the genres that I hate the MOST, so this album was really tough to get through. So much so that I didn’t even do it. No disrespect or anything, but this album is not for me whatsoever. — Today sucked fat ass, I cried on the phone to Luke about how I hate school and I want to quit 🤣🤣🤣 I’m trying to force myself to stick with it and not give up so easily, but holy fuck is it easy to get discouraged. I fucking hate computers, ever since I was a child I’ve longed for a time other than this one, yet I have to be stuck in this hellhole of a world that just keeps driving itself further and further toward a bottomless pit of despair. I find it really hard to find a will to live sometimes.

Une couverture piégeuse… Si j'avais voulu un album d'Ice Cube dissimulé sous une perruque et un turban, j'aurais directement demandé à Robert (je le connais personnellement). Non, non et non.

i mean i see the appeal but felt a little cringe at times, i don’t feel as though i need to revisit low 2.5

19 years old when she released this, but 1989 hip hop doesn't age well.

It was awful.

I really wanted to like this more than I did.

So I’m guessing this is on the 1,001 list related to Queen Latifah being one of the first female rappers – so I get that, and I also think it’s impressive for a 19-year old female in the male dominated hip hop world… That said, just how many songs do you need to have on an album where you reference how “dope” your rhymes are, talk about how you can out-rap anyone, and mention your name – along with DJ Mark The 45 King? A couple of songs? Perhaps half the album? Nope – apparently EVERY SINGLE God-damn track needs to make some reference to the “Queen & King”… Absolutely wore me out… Additionally, the sound on this album seems incredibly dated to me (i.e. and it didn’t age well either…) – as I guess a lot of hip-hop back then tended to sound like this – and then of course the lyrical content of 80%+ of the songs was about what a great rhymer she was, and how she could take on anybody… Sure, 1 or 2 songs like that would have been fine – but just about every song on the album – well shit got pretty dull, pretty quickly IMO – but I guess when it came out, it sounded different… The only lyrical content that was along the lines of what I expected was “Evil That Men Do” – after of course the obligatory first few minutes of rapping about what a great rhymer she was – the rest of it was interesting, and would have preferred more of her perspectives like that… Also liked the reggae feel of “Princess Of The Posse” – just had to put up with all the lyrics about how great she was – though the chorus by the back-up singers was fine… Giving this a 2 for historical significance, and the inaugural work of a 19-year old female in a male dominated genre, but at the end of the day – the quality of the songs throughout an album HAVE to mean something, and the endless repetition on this one was just insufferable…

After NWA’s misogynistic lyrics two days ago, this felt good!

The only reason this doesn't get five stars is because it not timeless. The beats and delivery style absolutely peg this as a rap album from the late 80s-early 90s. But, for the time, this album is absolutely head of the class. The lyrics are so sharp they draw blood just brushing against them. It's rare for a debut album to be such a great indication of an artist's legacy but, with "All Hail the Queen" Latifa made it clear that she was here to stay and ready to rumble. And she has. Her impact on music (and film) in America is undeniable. And it's all on display here. Great album.

Fair play to her breaking into the male dominated hip-hop world. Some good production and flow - surprisingly sounds less dated than some of her contemporaries. Best Track: Dance For Me; Mama Gave Birth To The Soul Children; Wrath of My Madness

Very good 80s rap that again loses a point for length

Ik ga ook een album maken dat van A tot Z over mezelf gaat.

Really disappointed, bland, lyrically kinda dull

Lyrics are pretty weak for a rap album

No no god no. Put it back in the ark of the covenant and open it again in 30 years. Let the future deal with it. Just get it out of my sight.

No topaba esto. Uno de los mejores discos de hip hop de todos los tiempos.

This album is great from start to finish.

Absolutely mint, no idea she was this good. Better than, or at least as good as, a lot of the greatsnfrom this era, Tribe, De La Soul, etc. Easy a 4 maybe a 5

Yes.

4.5/5. Essential early hip hop. Nothing else to say.

Punk fucking rock

What a talent

Crazy that she was 18/19 recording this. Required listening for hip hop fans. Fantastic.

Amazing HiP-Hop debut.

Slut 80’er hiphop, den gamle lyd, skarp lyrik, indflydelsesrigt

wow this album is a masterpiece. flows and rhymes are absolutely impeccable and the beats are so catchy and creative. love the hook on wrath of my madness especially. the voice change rap was cute haha. saxophone on ladie’s first was cool af. track for track such a great album.

I knew Queen Latifah was a rapper, but not sure I'd heard anything really and knew her mainly for film roles. This was quality! Proper hip hop, there was also a bit of dub and reggae sounding stuff in there too. Much better than I expected. Becoming clear to me that I definitely prefer the east coast sound. Some of this sounded like DJ format, or rather format sounds like this. Particularly the track with de la soul and wrath of my madness. Thought the guest artist songs kept it interesting too and it flew by. Listened a second time and it has to be a 5. I'll be back!

like it

Ha, nice. This came up immediately after De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising on my list. Just like that one, I thought that this was an excellent product of the hip-hop golden age. This had a bit of everything - reggae, dub, house, jazz, soul. Overall it was just a fun, energetic album with excellent flow, a lot of great collabs, and several genres being channeled brilliantly. Favourite: Come into My House

stupid good. 5 stars.

стильно, модно, вкусно

i loved this shit

favourite songs: mama gave birth to the soul children, the pros, evil that men do, inside out no least favourites, absolutely loved this and knew that i would as soon as de la soul appeared. fantastic album. started listening again as soon as it was done.

Beautiful and soulful throughout. Really easy to just listen and vibe to.

A perfect album a seriously enjoyable listen les go

I just snagged the vinyl last week to finally bring this album in to my collection, so this gave me a perfect excuse to break it in. Start to finish a banger, and an absolute classic.

you wouldn't have Beyonce without Queen Latifah. and this debut is jazzy, funky, groovy, and with a flow that is sterling. Ladies First is a killer song.

didn't think I was a fan of Queen latifah - until listening to this! boppin, funky, she is a great lyricist / rapper.

Wow! This was a great weekend of music. Just as with yesterday's PJ Harvey, as soon as I finished All Hail the Queen I just started it over again. Fantastic!

It has been a very long time since I last listened to this album. The hip-hop of the late 80s feels good to me!

All hail the queen is right!

This is a joy, art, musical, inventive.

Timeless beats, effortless flows, excellent production, excellent features, an undeniable classic of New York rap

FUN producers did a SIIICK job on this i really really love this. 4.7/5

Good stuff, positive vibes, great beats, good message. Don't know what more you want.

Better than I thought.... some good tunes and worth a revisit!

3.75/5. I know Queen Latifah was in the naive tounges, so I was pretty confident I was going to like this album. Most songs on here were good, however, there were a few that did not work for me. 'The Pros' was very unenjoyable. Most songs fell right in line with the native tounges sounds, so I like most of the album.

This record still bangs. Besides the great lyrical content I'm really digging the old school beats.

It's a very good album. One of the classics from the old school era.

Hijole... la segunda canción... OMEGALOL. Aunque Come into My House y Wrath of My Madness y Princess of the Posse están a gusto. Sinceramente ya ni me acordaba que Queen Latifah hacía discos. Mood: sí algunos skips porque es más de una hora, no mamar.

So fun! I remember hearing Queen Latifah when she first hit the radio and her flows really stood out. The production on this album is awesome, with contributions from names like KRS-One and Prince Paul.

Pretty good

I like this old-school hip-hop; emphasis on aggressive and rhythmic vocals, with some great samples (e.g. Sly and the Family Stone right off the bat) before copyright law caught up with the new artform :) Some of it sounds a little dated at this point ("Princess of the Possee" [but *huge* props for the "Barney Miller" bassline in the remix on the extended version!] or "Come Into My House" where the drums sound like wet paper and are distracting) but a. i'll still prefer it over the dull/uncreative "modern" trap beats and b. for every sound that's meh she comes back with tracks like "Latifah's Law" and "Ladies First" which are too great to ignore. It's a great document of the golden age of hip-hop when women especially were seen as more of a novelty instead of a force like Queen Latifah is here. 8/10 4 stars

Fun album with some jams

Great stuff. I enjoyed the trumpets alot, they really added to the jazzyness of the boom bap beats.

SLAY QUEEN

Great old scholl hiphop, feels a bit lacking regarding the actual contents but fun flows and good beats.

The sound is of a time, both production and flow. But there's a sense of play throughout, with the music, features, and words. The wordplay will be more appreciated by fans of this era of hip-hop, and I'm not really one. However, the parts add up to something more than their sum, and the LP grows not just forward but backward.

Great beats, great lyrics and wordplay. She is the Queen for a reason.

3rd August 2021 Listened on my phone in the morning and on the way to meet Andy for bowling before he leaves for China. Really enjoyed this, 90s hip hop is brill

So incredibly 90s... I loved this for purely nostalgic reasons. Queen Latifah can sure rock a rhyme though.

This album was actually excellent. A little dated but still strong. Inside Out was my favorite song

Good stuff

Good pick from the Golden era of hip-hop. Favorites: Come into My House, Ladies First, Princess of the Posse

Good classic hip hop. I forgot how great Queen Latifah was as an MC. 3.5/5

Pretty good

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this album. This is the energetic classic hip hop that I like over the slower, darker stuff.

Some cool beats on here. 7/10

the bars have not aged super well and there are some garbage features, but she gets it right on some of the songs and I really like the beats. 7/10

Very impressive to see that her work goes as far back as 1989, considering our generation knows her more for her acting. Great album of non-vulgar boasting, good flow, strong production from legends. I enjoyed the fact that she sings and raps. A bit lengthy, but overall a good album.

Yes! All hail the queen

Fantastic beats, original

Hip hop. Jazzy riffs. Catchy, upbeat. Kept realizing that I was tapping my feet along with the beat. Would listen again.

All hail the Queen. What fun music. Lots of great memories

Wow, I wasn't expecting All Hail The Queen to sound like it did. OK I wasn't sure what to expect but it certainly wasn't a mix of house and soul and the best of the Native Tongues collective. I had heard a few tracks off this before I just that were Queen Latifah guesting with others not out the front. I have to give this some more listens

The QUEEN. She absolutely nails her debut, but the album does suffer from a lot of the cheesy 80s tropes when it comes to rap.

I think this one has aged well. Classic hip hop beats will never really go out of fashion, and the overall style falls just the right side of being too cheesy, although I'm sure for some hip-hop heads this style just the wrong side, Good variety, doesn't feel samey all the way through, and good range of features for that matter. Overall, while lacking in straight bangers, this is enjoyable all the way through, and fits nicely into my love of feel-good hip hop

Liked it! Not as great as I imagined though

Never really listened to QL before. Definitely a great example of late 80s hip hop. Loving the Prince Paul / KRS One production here. Also pretty cool the feminist lyrics at a time (is that time past yet...?) when hip hop was brutally misogynistic. Glad I got this one

I grew more impressed as it went... At first I thought 3-3.5 but now I feel 3.5-4, so I'll be true to form and round up

I have listened to this album before Her flows are incredible throughout almost every track Artists like Queen Latifah, Big Daddy Kane, etc really pioneered certain sounds that segued into later 90s rap like Big L, Lauryn Hill and others Samples on this album are well executed De La Souls feature on MGBTTSC has a good flow and overall the track just has interesting sounds you dont always hear Ladies First is an incredible song Just the influence this album has on future classics is incredible The saxophone and bass instrumentals across the album are so good I really enjoy this project 7/10

This album was a ton of fun. I knew she had a respected music career but I'd never heard any of Queen Latifah's music before today. Overall I loved the 90's east coast influence, her vocals landed well and the production was tight. Definitely going to add a few of these songs into the rotation The Pros stopped me in my tracks. I love that dub intro and that rolling bass introduced 30 secs in filled me up. Super into Queen reggae inspired jams and that 808 cowbell sample is classic 90's hiphop. Standout Tracks (stealing Webers format here) Dance for Me, The Pros, Ladies First, Princess of the Posse

lyrics and flow are truly excellent. production is mid to bad, mixing is terrible. makes sense that this is a debut album, but with some better choices this could be a strong 5. it missed a bit

I’ve been woefully uninitiated to Queen Latifah’s work. She’s definitely great but it loses one star just because I don’t think there’s a single to tie the album together, the production feels a little dated (especially the mix is a bit weird), and finally the album is just a bit too long to not have a nice arc between the songs Very witty lyrics with great delivery, both of which definitely hold up

Solid album - it is not my go-to 80s hip hop album and I had not listened to it for quite some time but still like it.

I admit I wasn’t thrilled at first but the album won me over through its course. Some really funky beats. 7/10 Fave: wrath of my madness

Nice production, great sound and Latifah goes hard AF on this. I thought she was an actress in comedies!

really enjoyed! made pasta whilst listening

Before she was commanding audiences and scenes on the silver screen, Queen Latifah was commanding the microphone and audiences on wax. Her appropriately apt All Hail the Queen is the most perfect document of a time period where women were beginning to experience their rocky ascent up the rap ladder after years of stop/start trajectories. Queen Latifah more than holds her own, this is her album after all, weaving back and forth between rap, house and dub reggae with the likes of De La Soul, Daddy-O from Stetsasonic and Monie Love; a very worthy addition to the rap canon. Favorites: Dance for Me, Come Into My House, Latifah's Law, Wrath of My Madness, The Pros, Ladies First, A King and Queen Creation, Inside Out.

This production is great

I usually forget that Queen Latifah was a rapper before becoming an actress, but she’s quite good here! A lot of these tracks are of their time, but her flow is practically ageless and there are some great features as well. Think I’ll just do a B, but it could earn the +

I generally don't care for early hiphop (89 isn't that early, but it's not that..late either). I liked this more than most, though. I would choose to listen to this again. 3.75/5

I've only ever heard Queen Latifah's records from the 90's. This was pretty good, nice bridge between the 80's hip hop rap sound and the style that became popular in the 90's.

Another golden age of rap/ hip hop record, and another I haven't heard before. Nice.