Looking forward to post-rap career

The star of 'Taxi' sings soft jazz, soul and big band on her new album.
By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK -- At 34, Queen Latifah is decades away from receiving a Social Security check.
Still, she already knows what she wants to be doing when she becomes a senior citizen -- and rhyming onstage to the hip-hop beat that made her famous isn't one of them.
"I couldn't see me rapping," says Latifah between drags of a cigarette, lounging around her hotel suite. "With acting, I can see me doing that until I'm old and gray. But I couldn't see personally rapping forever and ever."
Which explains why the rap pioneer, who broke into the male-dominated field with hits like "Ladies First" and "U.N.I.T.Y" in the late '80s and early '90s, has downshifted on her new album to a soothing blend of soft jazz, big band, soul and standards.
"I wanted to be able to grow somewhere, and I felt like, when I start making this kind of music, this is really the kind of music I can do for the rest of my life," she says of "The Dana Owens Album," titled after her real name. "I can continue to build on it and get more creative with it. I can sing these songs 'til I'm old and gray."
Big screen
Latifah is always thinking long-term, which may be why she's been able to morph from successful rapper to sitcom star ("Living Single") to talk show host (the ill-fated "Queen Latifah Show") to one of Hollywood's potential superstars -- an Oscar-nominated actress with box-office draw ("Chicago," "Bringing Down the House").
Now she's on the big screen again in the action-comedy flick "Taxi," costarring Jimmy Fallon from "Saturday Night Live" -- but it's Latifah who gets top billing.
"It was that combination of critical acclaim of 'Chicago' and this body of work that I brought already to the table and the financial success of 'Bringing Down the House' that at the same time created this little perfect storm of Queen Latifah business," she says.
So far, the flood of projects has included last fall's hit "Scary Movie 3," "Barbershop 2" and the upcoming "Beauty Shop" -- a female spinoff of the "Barbershop" franchise.
It's a gratifying time for the star, who struggled to find the right vehicle for her talents after wowing movie audiences and critics with her explosive turn as "Cleo" in the 1996 girl-robber flick "Set It Off."
"A lot of the roles were actually on their way already, but it just took time. I think the opportunities have come after the Oscar (nomination)," she says, referring to her 2003 performance as Matron Morton in the musical "Chicago."
"Chicago" not only opened doors for her in acting, but also in the musical arena.
Producer impressed
Ron Fair, president of the A & amp;M record label and a producer on the "Dana Owens" album, had long been a fan of Latifah's pipes. "I first became aware of Dana as a singer from her performance of 'Lush Life' in 'Living Out Loud,"' he says of the 1998 movie that featured Latifah as a nightclub singer.
"I was struck by the fact that she was a rapper who could sing that well. ... It's kind of like somebody who first got their driver's license and their first car is a Ferrari. Her instrument is that evolved that it's a very natural thing."
After that flick, offers came in for Latifah to do a jazz album, including from Fair. But Latifah wasn't ready to let go of her rap persona, even though it's been years since she made a dent on the rap charts.
"I was still rappin' and I still wanted to rhyme, so I didn't want to put this album out just yet, because I knew if it became somewhat of a hit, then I would have to continue on with it," she says.
Although she insists she can still hang with today's rap crowd artistically, it's a different scene than when she reigned supreme.
"If you wanna curse, you're always going to out-curse me. If you wanna strip, you're always going to get more naked than me," she says. "Consciousness and different things going on in the world and personal experiences, those are the kind of things that I wanted to get more into."
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