After a long hiatus from Hip Hop to pursue an acting career, Queen Latifah is preparing a return to the mic.
The “Ladies First” femcee collaborated with Dr. Dre and LL Cool J on the project. “They pretty much did the whole album,” she says in a recent interview. “My boy Kenny Flav did one track and I think might do two more. Missy [Elliott] and Swizz Beatz are the only two people I have left. But they’re mixing it right now.”
The untitled project is due out in December, but the Queen reveals that she almost went with a controversial title, The L Word, playing on rumors that she is a lesbian.
“Since people want to play games, I like to jab back sometimes just for fun,” she says of the concept, before adding, “but I’m like, ‘Nah, that’s too much energy wasted.’ ”
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She also reveals that Ludacris helped write some tracks for the album, which will deal with relationships between people. “A lot of love on there,” she says. “People, dealing with people, how people do all kinds of things, but then you’re like, ‘You know what? They’re just people.’
“Just like the media,” she adds. “You read something in the paper and just when I start to get mad, I’m like, ‘You know what? They’re just people.’ People do stuff. People will let you down. They won’t be around, but hey they’re just people, what are you gonna do?”
With a December release date looming, Latifah says she’s not sure who’s on the album or what the final product will sound like.
“I did all my parts and then I went on vacation. So they put people on it while I was gone and they’ve been waiting to talk to me to surprise me,” she says of the album. “I’m actually supposed to talk to them and find out who the hell is on that damn album. I’m sure there is no one on there I don’t like.”
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