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As A Rapper, You Sort Of Act In Music Videos And In The Persona You Adopt Onstage. You Kinda Have To Put Yourself Out There And Be Courageous Even To Be A Rapper. So, To Step Into Acting Was Not That Difficult A Transition To Make.

-Queen Latifah

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As A Rapper, You

Queen Latifah

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As A Rapper, You Sort Of Act In Music Videos And In The Persona You Adopt Onstage. You Kinda Have To Put Yourself Out There And Be Courageous Even To Be A Rapper. So, To Step Into Acting Was Not That Difficult A Transition To Make.

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African American

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I Decided Early On That I Was Going To Put On My Crown And Rule My World By Acting Right And Treating Myself Like A Queen.

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I Like To Keep Some Coloring Tools Around To Draw Vistas.

Let Your Inner Queen's Voice Come Through Loud And Clear. Be Strong, Be Authentic, Be You, And You'll Do Her Proud.

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The More You Push The Budgets Up, The More You Make Records Cost $20, The More You Make Records Last 4 And 5 Minutes On The Radio.

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I'm Not Living Large; I Just Want To Live Comfortably. I Wanna Have Financial Stability That Is Unshakable.

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Racism Is Ignorant. And It's Stupid. And It's Old. And It's Played Out. So Beat It Already With That, You Know What I Mean? 'let's All Get Along' - I'm So Tired Of That Damn Sentence, But It's True.

I Didn't Know I Had It In Me. There's More To All Of Us Than We Realize. Life Is So Much Bigger, Grander, Higher, And Wider Than We Allow Ourselves To Think. We're Capable Of So Much More Than We Allow Ourselves To Believe.

Instinct Leads Me To Another Flow

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I'm As Involved As I Can Be. Whenever I'm Asked To Do Something, I Always Tend To Show Up.

I Believe That The Kids, Young People Should Have An Opportunity To Have Oscar Nominated Actors In Their Movies Too.

I Never Wanted To Give Up My Power. I Wanted To Be Able To Make My Own Decisions, So That's Why I Became Involved In Management, Bottom Line.

I Am A Strong Woman With Or Without This Other Person, With Or Without This Job, And With Or Without These Tight Pants.

I Already Enjoy Cooking. I Like Different Flavors And Putting Different Things Together And Really Like Taking Normal Recipes To A Higher Level.

Bowling, I Like Bowling. I've Been Getting Into This Bowling Thing. It's Kinda Fun.

Roxanne Shanté Was Kind Of The First Female To Really Come Out And Get Respected By Dudes, Because She Went At Dudes Real Hard And Battled Them And Freestyled A Lot, And Really Came Off The Head A Lot.

So Often, You Don't Get That Opportunity. You Only Go Over Everything Once And, The Next Thing You Know, You're On Set.

I Lost Relatives To Aids, A Couple Of My Closest Cousins. I Lost Friends To Aids, High-school Friends Who Never Even Made It To Their 21st Birthdays In The '80s. When It's That Close To You, You Can't Really Deny It, And You Can't Run From It.

To Me, Hip Hop Will Never Be Right Until Female Rappers Have A Stronger Voice In It.

I Had To Grow To Love My Body. I Did Not Have A Good Self-image At First. Finally It Occurred To Me, I'm Either Going To Love Me Or Hate Me. And I Chose To Love Myself. Then Everything Kind Of Sprung From There. Things That I Thought Weren't Attractive Became Sexy. Confidence Makes You Sexy.

I Came From A Crew, And To Me, All The Guys I Rapped With Were Better Than Me, So I Was Surprised When I Was The Breakout One. It Was Definitely A Cool Thing.

We Ignore Our Feelings A Lot, I Realize. Many Of Us Have To... Until They Really Bite Us In The Butt.

For Myself Music Definitely Informs My Emotions. And I Can Literally Play A Song That Will Get Me Where I Need To Be Emotionally. I Don't Have To Think About The Tragic Things That Happened In My Life Or The Greatest Things That Happened In My Life.

My Mom Was My Main Influence Growing Up, And Phylicia Rashad Reminded Me A Lot Of My Mother, Just The Way She Handled Certain Things, She Was... Not Soft-spoken But Smooth-spoken. Just Very Calm, Cool, Collected About Things.

Yeah, I'm From Jersey; It's Almost Like I Was Automatically Born A Nets Fan.

For Me, It Might Sound Cliche, But Beauty For Me Really Does Start On The Inside. It's Like A State Of Mind, A State Of Love If You Will. Then, Whatever You Can Do On The Outside Is All Like A Bonus.

I Lost My Brother When I Was 22. He Was Only 24. I Was Always The Kind Of Person To Live On The Edge, But After That, It Made Me Feel Like I Could Really Die. It Can Really Happen. Before Then, I Never Thought It Could Happen To Me Or My Family.

To Step Into Acting Was Not That Difficult A Transition To Make. What Was Difficult Was The Work And The Practice That Went Into Becoming Good At It, Because I Hadn't Had Any Training.

You Almost Have To Step Outside Yourself And Look At You As If You Were Someone Else You Really Care About And Really Want To Protect. Would You Let Someone Take Advantage Of That Person? Would You Let Someone Use That Person You Really Care About? Or Would You Speak Up For Them? If It Was Someone Else You Care About, You'd Say Something. I Know You Would. Okay, Now Put Yourself Back In That Body. That Person Is You. Stand Up And Tell 'em, "enough!

I Need Something Bigger Than Myself. And The Only Thing That Can Be Would Be A Child. Someone Who Would Help Me Live Even More Selflessly.

As A Rapper, You Sort Of Act In Music Videos And In The Persona You Adopt Onstage. You Kinda Have To Put Yourself Out There And Be Courageous Even To Be A Rapper. So, To Step Into Acting Was Not That Difficult A Transition To Make.

I'm Not Allowed To Get A Big Head, I've Still Got To Do The Simple Things In Life.

I Don’t Want To Be A Supermodel; I Want To Be A Role Model.

I Just Like Ladies Who Have Class... Just Be Yourself And Let Your Personality Shine And Let Your Individuality Show. To Me, That's Sexier. A Confident Woman Is A Sexy Woman, In My Opinion

Two Records Put Me Over The Top With Hip-hop. One Of Them Was 'planet Rock,' And The Other Had No Lyrics - It Was Called 'numbers,' From A Group Called Kraftwerk. Every Kid In The 'hood In New York And New Jersey Was Popping, Locking, And Breaking To That Record. It Was The Hottest Track On The Street At The Time.

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What Would Your Life Be Like If You Found Out You Had 3 Weeks Left? And You Know That You Had Not Begun To Live? And You Had All These Dreams And All These Possibilities. And All These Things You Wanted To Do And Things You Wanted To Say And Now Time's Up?

I Designed My Whole Image. That Was All Me. I Just Bought Some Regular Clothes, Threw A Medallion Around My Neck, And That Was It. The Next Thing I Know, That's The Look.

I Know People Who Are Twice As Creative As I Am, Twice As Smart, But They Didn't Do Anything Because They Feared Going Into A Room And Opening Their Mouths. My Parents Told Me To Truly Accomplish Things In My Life, There Would Be Times I Would Have To Stand Alone. It May Be Scary, But That's What It Requires.

It Was A Very Vulnerable Time Going From Being Insecure About My Body And Who I Am To Becoming Comfortable With Me. I Had To Tune Out What The Hell Everybody Else Had To Say About Who I Was. When I Was Able To Do That, I Felt Free.

Sometimes I Pray When I Really Feel Like I Need God To Help Me With Something, And Sometimes We Just Have Conversations. We Just Kick It.

I Want To See 10 Female Rappers Getting Regular Rotation. It Can't Be All About A Man's Opinion.

I Was Baptized A Baptist, But I'm Just Christian, As Far As I'm Concerned. I Could Go In Any Church, Doesn't Matter If It's Baptist, Protestant, Episcopal, Or Catholic.

When We Understand That We Are A Human Race, What Affects You Affects Me, What Affects Her Affects You And So On And So On, Then We'll Look At This Thing [hiv/aids] For What It Really Is. It's A Disease That's Out To Kill All Of Us. What Will Make It Continue Is Our Prejudices, Our Ideas About It, And The Fact That We Don't Look At Ourselves As One Giant Community.

I've Been Giving Back Since I Was A Teen, Handing Out Turkeys At Thanksgiving And Handing Out Toys At Toys Drives For Christmas. It's Very Important To Give Back As A Youth. It's As Simple As Helping An Old Lady Across The Street Or Giving Up Your Seat On The Bus For Someone Who Is Pregnant.

I Don't Have Any Regrets. If I Could Have Talked To My 19- Or 20-year-old Self, I Would Have Said, 'you're Going To Be Fine. It Ain't That Serious!'

I Am Not One To Turn Down Macaroni And Cheese, Even Late At Night. I Love Italian Food. I Love Pasta... A Refrigerator Full Of Water And Gatorade? Honey, That's Just Not Gonna Happen.

It's Not Always Easy To Do The Right Thing. But, Doing The Right Thing Makes You Strong, It Builds Character, It Forces You To Make Decisions Based Upon Your Beliefs And Not What Other People Think. In Life, And In Business, You Have To Stand For What You Believe In And Sometimes You Have To Stand Alone. But, What Makes You A Leader Is Having The Courage Of Your Convictions.

It's Great To Be Able To Employ People Who Other People Wouldn't Consider Viable Employees.

It's Not Always Easy To Do The Right Thing. But, Doing The Right Thing Makes You Strong, It Builds Character.

I Feel Very Positive About Newark's Future, But I Know We Need A Lot Of Help. I Think That Starts With The Education Of Our Kids And Making The Streets Safer.

People Have Often Asked Me, Do I Want To Be The Next Oprah - There Is No Such Thing. Oprah Is Oprah, And She's Still Being Oprah If Anybody Hasn't Noticed... What I Bring To Tv Is Myself... I Really Think There's Space In Daytime Tv For A Whole Bunch Of Fun, Some Amazing Music, And Some Heart.

I Tend To Share Whatever I Know In General. I've Never Been A Person To Horde Information For The Sake Of My Own Skin, You Know What I Mean? Not Share So Somebody Doesn't Take Your Job, I've Never Had That Kind Of Insecurity. I Also Had A Management Company, Too, So We Were Always One Of Those Companies That Shared Information With Our Artists. Whatever They Wanted To Know, As Much As They Wanted To Know, They Could Know.

Those Curveballs Are Always Coming-eventually, You Learn To Hit Some Of Them.

If You Can Draw Something From My Life That Helps, More Power To You.

Don't You Want To Know What's Real And What's Not? I Remember When I Was A Kid, You Know, This Whole Cold War Thing. They Had Us Scared Of The Russians. So, It's Almost Like, What's Real And What's Not?

I Like Pirate's Booty. Prunes And Olives, Too. I Love Hummus. I Can Eat That Until I Die. I Tend To Eat Mostly Organic Food.

I Do Feel Like I Have A Direct Connection With God For Some Reason; Always Have Since I Was A Little Kid - I Would Talk To God, Talk To The Sky.

I've Never Wanted To Be Put Into A Box, Not Musically.

You Can't Ask Someone Who Is Not Making That Kind Of Money To Go To The Record Store And Buy An Album When Someone Down The Street Has The Same Record With Same Sound Quality For $5.

You Have To Stand For What You Believe In And Sometimes You Have To Stand Alone.

The Reality Is, I Like Imperfection. You Take Away From The World When You're Not Yourself. Whatever Is Unique And Special About You Was Designed By God. And When You Try To Be Someone Else, We Don't Get You. Who Knows What You Would Have Contributed To The World Had You Just Been Yourself, If You Had Just Celebrated Who You Are And Just Walked Boldly?

I've Loved Car Racing All My Life. I Watch Nascar Regularly, And Drag Racing Because We Have Raceway Park In New Jersey. I Think I Got It From My Father.

I Think As Far As The Music Industry Is Concerned, It's Kind Of Been The Wild, Wild West In A Way With The Internet, Which Is Not Necessarily A Bad Thing To Me.

Running For Office Was Definitely Something I've Thought About. When I Was Younger, I Wanted To Major In Political Science. And I've Been Engaged In Current Events Since I Was A Kid. If I Can Make A Difference And Feel Passionately And Capable, Then I Would. Why Not?

I Approach The Film Business The Way I Feel About Self-esteem. It's Something That Has To Be Maintained. That's Kind Of How I Feel About Positive Roles In Hollywood. They Have To Be Maintained. You Have To Purposefully, Intentionally Try To Make The Right Type Of Films. And The More People That Do That, The More Things Will Continue To Improve.

I Wish Every Woman Would Love Herself And Embrace What She Was Given Naturally.

Having Black Hair Is Unique In That Black Women Change Up Styles A Lot. You Can Walk Down One Street Block In New York City And See 10 Different Hairstyles That Black Women Are Wearing: Straight Curls, Short Cuts, Braids - We Really Run The Gamut.

I Want Every Day To Be Life For The Living, Not Just Traipsing Through It Existing. I'm Just Interested In Life And The World And Exploring.

Look At People For An Example, But Then Make Sure To Do Things Your Way. Surround Yourself With Positive People.

The Females Don't Respect Themselves; They Only Think Materialistically. They Want Money, But They Don't Think, I'm Gonna Get This Money On My Own, They Think, I'm Gonna Get Money From This Guy.

To Wanna Be Me Is To Go Through Not Just The Good But The Bad. You Wanna Share My Story Identically? Man, You Gonna Take Some Lumps.

I Don't Have To Take A Trip Around The World Or Be On A Yacht In The Mediterranean To Have Happiness. I Can Find It In The Little Things, Like Looking Out Into My Backyard And Seeing Deer In The Fields.

I Learned You Really Do Have To Make Sure You Enjoy Life.

If I Ran Into A 19-year-old Version Of Myself, I'd Just Tell Her To Live, Full Out. I Might Also Tell Her To Go Ahead And Have A Few Babies And Not Worry About The Timing Of It.

God Has Always Been In My Life And His Little Voice In Me That Lets Me Know When I'm Falling A Little Too Far Left Or Right, Up Or Down You Know. I Know Because There Is A Little Voice That Starts Saying, 'damn It, What Are You Doing? You Need To Slow Down With That' Or I Might Not Be A Good Person To Hang Around You Know... So God Will Do This To Me In Some Sort Of Way. Or Something Bad Will Happen To Me.

I Never Pictured Myself As Just A Rapper; I Always Wanted To Act And Do Whatever Else I Could Do. I Always Felt Like I Could Do A Lot Of Different Things.

When It Came Time To Be A Professional Rapper, I Wouldn't Sign Anything Without Reading It. There Was No Way I Was Going To Have People Make Decisions For Me Or Wake Up One Day And Find That I Was Broke Because I Never Bothered To Read A Contract.

I'd Say, If You Want To Be An Artist, Start With Your Art; Start With Making Great Music And It Will, Hopefully, Eventually Cut Through All Of The Nonsense That Is Out There.

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