All Hail the Queen
Queen Latifah
1989
Album Summary
All Hail the Queen is the debut album by hip-hop artist Queen Latifah. The album was released on November 28, 1989, through Tommy Boy Records. The feminist anthem, "Ladies First" featuring Monie Love remains one of Latifah's signature songs. All Hail the Queen peaked at no. 6 on the Billboard Top Hip Hop/R&B Albums chart and at no. 124 on the Billboard 200 chart. "Wrath of My Madness" was the first single from All Hail the Queen, and was later sampled in Yo-Yo's "You Can't Play With My Yo-Yo". "Mama Gave Birth to the Soul Children" peaked at no. 14 in the UK.
WikipediaA 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.
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.
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.
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.
No topaba esto. Uno de los mejores discos de hip hop de todos los tiempos.
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
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.
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.
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
Great stuff. I enjoyed the trumpets alot, they really added to the jazzyness of the boom bap beats.
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 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
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.
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.
Hip hop. Jazzy riffs. Catchy, upbeat. Kept realizing that I was tapping my feet along with the beat. Would listen again.
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
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.
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.
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.
Great fun. Not heard most of these tracks before. Such a contrast to all the misogynistic shite coming out of hip hop/rap at the time. Up there with De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest.
Just a fun little nugget of information: when I was very young (think 6-7 years old), I used to think that Queen Latifah was the queen of Africa. I know there is a fair bit to unpack there, but thankfully I’m ever so slightly smarter now than I was back then. Songs I already knew: none Favourites: Princess of the Possee, Ladies First I’ve said it before in other reviews, but I miss this era of rap music. Plenty of content in the lyrics and rhymes rather than mumbling about some nonsense, or otherwise just trying to cram in as many words as possible. This was a simpler era of hip hop, so just sounded so much better to my ears. I’d very happily listen to this before modern rap. Overall, quite enjoyable.
4/5. A fun and energetic rap album from a creative artist. Crazy that she’s 18 years old here. Some misses but gosh darn are there some bangers on here.
Really good! She deserves to be a rap legend. How is this a debut album from 1989?? Outshines many others from this time period of rap.
An album with some nice classic hip hop sounds mixed with soulful jazz instrumentals makes this album thoroughly enjoyable for the most part, paired with Queen Latifah’s rhyme schemes and confident lyricism this really displays hip hop at its roots. I particularly enjoy how well the collaborating artists on this project pair with Queen Latifah, there’s some real chemistry throughout and makes those particular songs a great listen. The only thing letting this album down I’d say is the last 2 songs, they’re not bad by any means but the instrumentals are a bit plain and Latifah isn’t being as much energy as in the rest of the project
This album is a great debut from Queen Latifah. I absolutely love it. Every song on this album is a great one, but my absolute favorites are: "Princess of the Posse" and "Inside Out".
I had this CD. I don’t think I realized how star studded this album was. But age hasn’t been kind. What a disjointed mess. Although Monie Love nearly saved it. Born in L-O-N-D-O but sound Americ -N.
A ratos llegué a sentirlo repetitivo, pero sin duda tiene sus buenos beats y sus rimas ok. "Come into My House", "Wrath of My Madness", "Evil that Men Do" e "Inside Out" son mis favs y claro, "Ladies First" suena muy lo que ahora dicen empoderante. Por las fechas, supongo que sí tuvo su influencia en raperas subsecuentes. Y pues ya, no sé qué más decir. 7/10
Never listened to her before, and not really my genre, but I enjoyed this.
i really liked the sound but some of the songs were really repetitive and it got annoying after while but i did like it
Queen latifah paved the way for female rappers. Lyrically she’s pretty good but the late 80s rap style is a bit bland in comparison to what’s been made sense. The album has some good moments and a few songs are worth a replay but overall it’s nothing amazing. 6.5/10
I remember driving along the Glenavy Road more than the album itself - Come into My House in particular. Think I finished it; did I definitely?
Pretty dated but she does well as any emcee from the era. She reminds me of the female Ice Cube just not as aggressive
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
Dang I only really knew Queen Latifah as an Actress. I knew she started in music, but never really listened to it. This is some solid stuff!
Good old-school rap. I recall when this album was released , and at the time QL seemed to be the only woman rapping in the “traditional” style of the day. The times they have changed, and she gets a lot of credit for opening doors for the many successful acts that have followed. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Not bad, but it hasn't aged super well. There's a lot of early hip-hop on this list that feels very dated. Some of it is important from a historic perspective, but compared to the amount of more recent hip-hop inclusions, it's pretty overloaded.
Refreshingly gangster-free, although still posturing about ability. Good use of "daisy-age" jazz-funk samples alongside big beats. Dig the Sly and Scot-Heron samples and what about the additional remix sampling The The!?! Pretty dated, but pleasant to hear.
Always knew she had a hip hop background but had never heard a song before. She has some outstanding rhymes on this album. Some random uncredited (at least on Spotify) guest spots that take over the song that took me out of it a little but overall was impressed!
Very much of its time. Maybe a higher rating if I’d gotten to listen to lyrics more.
It's easy to imagine how impenetrable and male-dominated hip-hop must have been in the late 80s, so Queen Latifah entering the equation with force and persuasion must have been a real game-changer. Even if I found some of it repetitive and overlong, I had the feeling she was rewriting the rule book with this album and laying down a lot of enjoyable tracks to boot. I'm a sucker for brass sampling and this album has it by the sousaphone load, from the opening "Dance for Me" to the excellent, De La Soul-featuring "Mama Gave Birth to the Soul Children" which zips around all over the place. Proceedings begin as infectious, feel-good, sunshine sampling and energetic, affirming, violence and profanity-free rap. As the album unfurls, Latifah balances "foot" and "head" music: social commentary "Evil that Men Do" makes a powerful statement and "Ladies First" is an addictive, career-defining manifesto. On paper, it all sounds excellent: my main issue as I listened was the length. Many of the songs play all their cards within the first couple of minutes and don't leave themselves anywhere to progress: a lot of them come off feeling repetitive. "The Pros" is far too long, and the house-influenced "Come into My House"- with its synthesisers and programmed beats, is an interesting experiment but gets a little monotonous, and has aged more than the rest of the album. "A King and Queen Creation" is another weak link: while I enjoyed 45 King's production in general, I wasn't crazy about his vocals in this one. The sequencing is frustrating as well- "Princess of the Possee" and "Inside Out" are two of my least favourites and end the album on a bit of a nothing note. While there are a few songs that didn't do anything for me personally, this is still a fun listen and brings another perspective on this era of hip-hop, which has remained fresh and vital. Most of my highlights are in the front half: "Ladies First", "...Soul Children" and "Wrath of My Madness" in particular deserve to go down as classics.
It's not as awful as Kanye's "The College Dropout", but still, hip hop isn't my cup of coffee.
This is one of those albums that you really WANT to be better than it is. Latifah is technically very good, but she has that late 80s lyrical style that feels very dated in hip-hop. From memory, I feel like Monie Love (who features here) had a more interesting lyrical style on her debut record. Some of the production and features here are really good. The track with Daddy-O from Stetsasonic is the highlight track with great vocals and production. Mark the 45 King does the majority of production, and some of it is great but some is boring. He also raps on one of the stronger tracks. De La Soul make an appearance which is pretty enjoyable, but Prince Paul's production is frustrating as always. On the one hand, he's an amazing producer with incredible samples and loops. On the other hand, his stuff from this period has these "goofy" irritating skit elements which ruin whole albums. KRS-One produces a mediocre track but doesn't rap which is a shame. Overall, some of the production and vocals are pinnacles of the period. But the two components are not always strong in the same tracks, and sometimes they are both weak. The house track "Come into My House" is the low point of the album which deducts at least half a point by itself. 3*
A grower - and it gets funkier as it progresses. It’s Jamaican tinged tracks are my favourite.
Feels ahead of it's time, but also dated. That said it's got great vibes and I starred a few tunes.
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...
progressive 90s hiphop, lots of Queen Latifah talking about herself. beats range from frustratingly 90s to kinda catchy. overall it feels kind of dated