Queen Latifah: Order in the Court (Motown)

DAMN NEAR ten years ago, an intriguing Afro-centric mama named Queen Latifah flexed like pure royalty on her debut disc, All Hail the Queen. With the wrath of her musical madness, this fiery lady was determined to uplift the state of female rappers still stranded in the aural wasteland of the post-Roxanne era. Yet, while many of her former femme contemporaries have long faded from the scene, Miss Dana Owens has developed herself into a multimedia (films, television and books) icon for the masses. But all the heads want to know is, "can the sista still rap?"