That time Queen Latifah called for “U.N.I.T.Y.” & the whole world listened
Black Reign, which would peak at No. 15 on the Billboard R&B/Hip Hop chart and go on to sell over 500,000 copies.Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.The song confronted misogyny and the lack of respect of women are given in in society by addressing issues of street harassment, domestic violence, and sexist slurs against women. “Instinct leads me to another flow / Every time I hear a brother call a girl a bitch or a ho / Tryna make a sister feel low / You know all of that gots to go.”“U.N.I.T.Y.” was co-written and produced by KayGee, who would later go on to work with several queer icons, including the ’90s R&B duo Zhané, frequent Pride headliner Deborah Cox, and soul singer Luther Vandross.It sampled “Message from the Inner City” by the Houston-based jazz group, the Crusaders, and offered an early preview of the direction Latifah’s music career would go in the 2000s, with the release of two jazz collections, 2004’s The Dana Owens Album, her best-selling record to date, and 2007’s Trav’lin’ Light.Of course, at the time of its release, Latifah was not publicly out.
But the song’s general call for respect, love, and togetherness could easily extend to include queer women and the LGBTQ+ community as a whole.Per Olka Jones at Consequence of Sound:With “U.N.I.T.Y.”, Queen Latifah used her platform to tell her story and also the story of an entire demographic.
At the same time, it gave women the courage to speak out about the injustices they endured on a daily basis. Discriminatory behavior towards women is not limited to what was touched upon on “U.N.I.T.Y.” In addition, they face inequality in their careers, home life, as well as in other genres of entertainment.
