Album Review: Queen Latifah- Persona

August 24, 4:49 PMNY Hip-Hop Music ExaminerSamantha Greaves

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Queen Latifah's Persona in stores (08.25).

Queen Latifah returns with her 7th studio album. Titled Persona, the album is unlike any other Queen Latifah album you have heard and packs a collection of diversified tracks; some for the Hip-Hop adorers and the other for the Pop and Techno followers of the new millennium.

This will not be the first time Latifah has stepped outside the usual music genre she is accustomed to performing in. In 2004, she dibble dabbled in Jazz with her album The Dana Owens Album and in 2007 she recorded an album filled with cover versions of Jazz standards titled Trav’lin Light.

On Persona, Queen Latifah makes it a priority to represent for all facets of music. The first 6 tracks on the album has a very Pop, Techno, and Electronic dance music sound while the remaining tracks shows Latifah returning to her Hip-Hop and R&B roots.

The album opens up with “The Light” that starts off with Latifah name dropping New Jersey-native music artists ranging from The Fugees to Whitney Houston , who have gone on to make names for themselves. Standing as one of the inspirational songs on the album that celebrates success, Queen Latifah flexes her vocal and lyrical skills. “Fast Car” that features Missy Elliot (and is the album's lead single) uses a splash of auto-tunes. The overall sound is a fast-pumping Pop feel good song.

Shifting into overdrive with “Hard To Love Ya” that features Busta Rhymes, Shawn Stockman (from Boys II Men) & Dre of Cool & Dre, stands out as one of the more Hip-Hop sounding songs on the album with a slight touch of R&B. The song elaborates on a tug-of-war one experiences when chasing love and money. “What’s The Plan” has an old school R&B essence (think Lisa Lisa & The Cult Jam) and uses the assistance of a vocodor to add the scent of 80’s R&B.

“Runnin” will quench the thirst of the south with the hard-bopping beat, showing an immense presence of high hat's throughout the track while “People” featuring Mary J. Blige will shed light on the struggles of life and the negative and positive qualities people choose to exude.

Persona shows how versatile and flexible Latifah can be when creating and recording music and sets the example that artists do not have to subject themselves to one genre to put out music that people will love.

Stand Out Tracks: “Fast Car”, “Cue The Rain”, “People”, and “The World”.
 

Queen Latifah’s Persona is due for release Tuesday, August 25th.