Queen Latifah

Her stage name Latifah, meaning "delicate" and "sensitive" in Arabic, was given her when she was eight by her cousin. There appeared to be light at the end of the tunnel in mid-2004 for increasingly impatient Wu-Tang fans awaiting this release when RZA authorized the limited release of the mixtape Formula For The Cure which was intended to build anticipation for the finished article. She stands 5'9". RZA has been promising for many years to release The Cure, said to be an epic concept album containing collaborations with high-profile artists such as Stevie Wonder, to be mostly in the wordy, Five Percent Nation-influenced style of Wu-Tang tracks such as Sunshower. In April 2003 she had breast reduction surgery. RZA also appeared alongside fellow Wu-Tang member GZA in one segment of Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes opposite Bill Murray. Other recent movies Latifah has appeared in are Scary Movie 3, Barbershop 2: Back in Business and Taxi. He also created and produced the original music for the Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill.

In 2003, she co-starred with Steve Martin in the marginally well received comedy Bringing Down the House, as a woman who is "mismatched" through a legal advice chat room with Martin's character. More recently he has moved into composing film scores, earning praise for his hip-hop score to Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai, and appearing for a brief cameo in the film itself. In 2003, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Matron "Mama" Morton in the movie musical Chicago. In 2003 he also released an album of collaborations with international rap and R&B musicians (including France's Saļan Supa Crew and Germany's Xavier Naidoo) entitled The World According to RZA, which was successful in many countries, despite not being sold in the USA. In 1998, she made an album entitled Order in the Court. Both Digital Bullet and Birth Of A Prince received mixed reviews from the press and fans. In 1996 she was arrested in possession of a small amount of marijuana and a gun; she was fined and sentenced to two years probation. Birth Of A Prince spawned the hit single We Pop, and featured a mix of lighthearted Bobby Digital tracks and more lyrically high-browed RZA tracks.

Latifah released an album dedicated to him, Black Reign, which was a hit partly because of a hit single, U.N.I.T.Y. In 1995, she was the victim of a carjacking, in which a friend of hers was shot. After another Wu-Tang group album, RZA released another Bobby Digital album, 2001's Digital Bullet, and in 2003 released Birth of a Prince, his first album released as The RZA. She still wears the key to the bike around her neck. In 1998, after the second Wu-Tang Clan album Wu-Tang Forever, RZA released his first solo effort titled RZA as Bobby Digital in Stereo, an experimental concept album featuring him rapping as his alter-ego Bobby Digital, which received mixed reviews. Her older brother Lance was killed in 1992 in an accident on a bike that Latifah had just bought him. He also took part in the Gravediggaz, an off-and-on rap supergroup including Frukwan of Stetsasonic and Prince Paul. From 1993 to 1998 Latifah starred on Living Single, a FOX sitcom; she also wrote and performed its theme music. While continuing with the Wu-Tang Clan, RZA produced many of their solo albums, for Ghostface Killah, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard and Method Man.

This debut was critically acclaimed as one of the best hip hop albums of all time and was followed by Nature of a Sista, another well-reviewed album. The album was incredibly successful, revolutionizing hip hop; one of the major reasons was RZA's sparse, lean production that made the sound distinctive. Local DJ Mark the 45 King heard a demo version of Latifah's single "Princess of the Posse" in 1988, gave the demo to Fab Five Freddy, who was then host of Yo! MTV Raps, and Fab 5 Freddy helped Latifah get signed to Tommy Boy Records, which released Latifah's first album, All Hail the Queen (1989), when she was 18. Once this acclaimed local band dissolved, then-Prince Rakeem started going by RZA (pronounced "the rizza") and joined the Wu-Tang Clan for their debut, Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers. She started her career beatboxing for rap group Ladies Fresh. He got his start in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a member of the All in Together Now Crew along with future Wu-Tang members GZA and Ol' Dirty Bastard. Latifah's first big success was singing the number "Home" from The Wiz in a school performance of the musical. He is also known as Prince Rakeem, Bobby Steels, the Abbott, the Rzarector, Ruler Zig-Zag-Zig-Allah and Bobby Digital, but best known as the RZA.

Owens' mother and father, a police officer, divorced when she was eight years old.
Robert Diggs (born July 5, 1969) is the record producer and a leader in the hip hop crew the Wu-Tang Clan. Dana Elaine Owens (born March 18, 1970, in Newark, New Jersey), better known as Queen Latifah, is an American Grammy Award-winning rap artist and actress. For help, see How to Edit a Page and the Style and How-to Directory. After the article has been cleaned up, you may remove this message. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of article quality.