Happy 30th Anniversary to Queen Latifah’s second studio album Nature of a Sista’, originally released September 3, 1991.
Rap was always waiting for a Queen Latifah. Trailblazers like Roxanne Shante, Salt-N-Pepa, and MC Lyte dismantled the earliest doubts of what women could do with hip-hop, and still more work remained. Latifah was up for the task. With proud posture and her trademark khepresh crowns, she carried the feminine mystique that commanded men’s attention and the microphone aptitude that seized their respect.
Once she had that attention, her opening statement All Hail the Queen (1989) asserted that women would not be hip-hop novelties. Along with party-starters “Dance for Me” and “Come into My House,” she proved her mettle with territory-marking screeds like “Evil That Men Do” and the Monie Love-feature “Ladies First.”
Two years later, Latifah returned to her platform in stately fashion with Nature of a Sista’, a positivity-dominant set of R&B, dance, funk, and reggae that tested the limits of hip-hop. Though DJ Mark the 45 King couldn’t reprise his role as primary producer, Latifah called to her aid Naughty By Nature, K-Cut, Danish duo SoulShock and CutFather, Luis “Louie Louie” Vega, and Nevelle Hodge. Together, they weaved a follow-up that would widen a path for both the artist and her successors to come.
In 1991, Latifah was all about expansion. Her company Flavor Unit managed her career, launched Naughty By Nature’s, and helped her book her first TV role on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air that summer. Months later, she hit the big screen with standout roles in House Party 2 and Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever. By that fall, Nature of a Sista’ would be in rotation on radio and video, readying her audience for the future.
Its jazzy-cool, ultra-smooth lead single “Fly Girl” (#19 Rap, #16 R&B) signaled a shift in Latifah’s creative locus. The radio-friendly R&B swing, horn vamps, and male-sung chorus were new elements, as was her savvy, demure tone on the verses. Before she had to raise her voice to ask “Who you callin’ a bitch?” on Black Reign’s “U.N.I.T.Y.” in 1993, “Fly Girl” tried to reason calmly with catcallers (“Why is it when I walk past the guys / I always hear, “yo, baby”? / … I'm a queen / ‘Nuff respect / Treat me like a lady / And no, my name ain’t Yo / And I ain’t got your baby!”). Maybe if warning were heeded on “Fly Girl,” she wouldn’t have had to punch him “dead in his eye” on “U.N.I.T.Y.”
Suffice it to say, the Queen was short on patience—or in other words: “Latifah’s Had It Up 2 Here.” This Naughty By Nature-produced second single was the speaker-knocking, royal rumble that confirmed hard-spitting Latifah remained on her throne. It’s Nature’s finest moment and its highest-charting single (#8 Rap, #13 R&B).
The next surprise up her highness’ sleeve was the boldly erotic single “How Do I Love Thee” (#32 R&B, #19 Dance), based on the Brazilian jazz of Tania Maria’s “Made in New York.” Though seeded by DJ Mark the 45 King, Latifah ultimately took the track in her own direction, producing and mixing it alone. She explained to SPIN, “I wrote ‘How Do I Love Thee’ on my birthday, when I was shooting House Party 2 in Los Angeles—I was away from home and I was … you know, kind of horny.”
What? An assertion of female desire? This was bold. Hip-hop required women to show they were men’s equals, but not when it came to owning their sexuality (“I’m like a child within your arms / Will you come inside and play with me? / Spend the day with me? / Have your way with me?”). However, fortune favors the bold. Rolling Stone compared the song favorably to Madonna’s “Justify My Love.” Latifah bet against her street credibility and won the right to be this much more of her full self.
That wouldn’t be the only gamble taken on this disc. Where it was normal to sing her own hooks and tags on All Hail the Queen, it was always an accoutrement to her rapping. She reverses this on Nature of a Sista’ with two straight-up R&B songs (“Give Me Your Love” and “Love Again”) that accentuate crooning over cadence. This was before hip-hop allowed Lauryn Hill, Missy Elliott, Drake, and Phonte to swerve on the dotted line between rap and song. They wanted Latifah to pick a lane.
She addressed this in SPIN: “It's true that there isn't as much hardcore rap on this album…but it was really like a freedom of expression-type thing … I like singing. I didn't do it to ‘go R&B’ or ‘go pop,’ and make money … It was about making a record I like. I have to make what feels right to me.”
All this fuss about a little variety assumes Latifah abdicated rap, but her flow is flawless on “Nuff of the Ruff Stuff” and “Nature of a Sista.” These Afrocentric tracks by All Hail-collaborator Luis Vega sound like wicker chairs, khaki suits, and raised fists. Latifah also smashes “One Mo’ Time,” another Naughty By Nature creation that picks up where 1989’s “Inside Out” left off. One couplet from the song (“Name callin’ hasn’t fallen into what I’m runnin’ / I wouldn’t dis another sister ‘less she had it comin’”) would become the hook of “Name Callin’,” a scathing dis from the Set It Off soundtrack (1996).
Where she had something to prove on her debut, Nature of a Sista’ is simply more fun. Just like “Come into My House,” “Bad as a Mutha” revisits the hip-house movement with intricately wrought lyrics that require dance and diction. On “If You Don’t Know,” Nevelle Hodge (Al B. Sure!, Heavy D & The Boyz) helps the queen trade her boom-bap for new jack. And Latifah tag teams with Swatch of her backup dance crew the Safari Sisters for “That’s the Way We Flow.” Its tumbling beat and piano plink gleefully recall Daisy Age hip-hop.
Nature peaked at #32 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and #117 on the US Billboard 200. Like the album’s palette of genres, its reviews were also mixed. Many complained Latifah’s bars were too braggadocious (an issue rarely raised to male rappers). Others were upset by the way these 12 tracks differed from her debut.
To her credit though, Rolling Stone ranked Nature of a Sista' at #64 on its 100 best albums of 1991. That sounds unimpressive until you consider hip-hop was still unwelcome to mainstream media at the time. Only 13 of those hundred were rap albums. Only 9 were ahead of Nature of a Sista’, and none of those were by women. That meant even with the ambivalence, Latifah was still at the forefront of a niche in a music that would soon dominate the culture that once rejected it.
Despite RIAA-gold certification, Tommy Boy released Latifah from their roster citing disappointing sales, which was the best thing they could do for her. De La Soul’s decades of trouble with the indie label indicate Latifah likely dodged a bullet. The company didn’t share her vision and couldn’t provide the support she needed, but Motown Records could. They removed that business bottleneck just in time for her magnum opus Black Reign and subsequent rise to Hollywood royalty.
Without massive hits and commercial validation, this sophomore CD isn’t celebrated the way All Hail the Queen and Black Reign are. Still, it’s a portrait of Queen Latifah moments before she rocketed to superstardom. Perhaps Nature of a Sista’ didn’t strike everyone’s fancy with its authenticity and ambition. If this is the template to become the icon she is today though, the next woman to grab a mic had better follow her playbook line-by-line.
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