--- title: 10 Questions for Queen Latifah | TIME description: The rapper-turned-actress has a new film, The Secret Life of Bees. She answers reader questions here canonical: https://time.com/video/gC08LDCG/ og:title: 10 Questions for Queen Latifah og:description: The rapper-turned-actress has a new film, The Secret Life of Bees. She answers reader questions here og:url: https://time.com/video/gC08LDCG/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/gC08LDCG/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 10 Questions for Queen Latifah twitter:description: The rapper-turned-actress has a new film, The Secret Life of Bees. She answers reader questions here twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/gC08LDCG/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # 10 Questions for Queen Latifah > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: 10 Questions for Queen Latifah [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions for Queen Latifah](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gC08LDCG.m3u8) (6:04)  _Published 2008-10-17. The rapper-turned-actress has a new film, The Secret Life of Bees. She answers reader questions here_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:02 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [How Politicians Shouldn't Answer Questions ](/video/nH4ePn2B/) ### How Politicians Shouldn't Answer Questions [ISS Astronauts Answer Your Questions](/video/yPdYueon/) ### ISS Astronauts Answer Your Questions [10 Questions for will.i.am](/video/SpclAGMJ/) ### 10 Questions for will.i.am --- ## Transcript >> Hi, I'm Gilbert Cruz for Time. com. And we're here with Queen Latifah who stars in the new film based on the best- selling novel, The Secret Life of the Bees. She is here to answer some question from Time readers. Thanks for joining us. >> Thanks for having me. >> Our first question here is from Andy Cleveland who comes from Grand Rapids, Michigan. What is your given birth name and where did Queen Latifah come from? >> Oh, wow. My birth name is Dana Owens. Latifah is a nickname that I chose when I was like about 8 years old. My cousin brought over his book with all these Arabic names and they had meanings to them and Latifah meant, delicate, sensitive, kind, nice. And I felt like that name sort of fit me. I have been kicking around a lot of different things, but I just didn't wanna be MC Latifah, so I decided Queen. And Queen Latifah, I felt like, you know, every woman is a queen and should be treated as such. At least, that's what my mom taught me. So, I kinda just connected the two. I ran it past my boys, they liked it and so I kept it. >> Muniqui Mohammad from Sendai, Japan wants to know if you've ever, ever, ever, ever-- that's the exact question-- gonna make another rap up. >> Absolutely and it's done. >> Really? >> It should be coming out in January. All the kind of elements that people have heard from me in the past, those who are familiar with my music, just very diverse, but very modern, very futuristic. >> What's it called? >> All Hail The Queen Part II. >> Nice. Nice. How does the hip hop industry changed since you were in it? I mean, your opinion has it been good or a bad change? >> The major changes sort of the internet, it's kinda brought music back to where it was when I first started which was much more independent. You can create your own identity and become someone without having to have a major record label. I think right now is a great time in hip hop first of all because I think, you know, people got the message when now I said hip hop I dead. It was just like there was a lack of creativity. Many of us as rappers, we come from inner cities. We grew up kinda in the ghetto. So, in growing up in the inner city, you tend to encounter a lot of things. Crime is one of the things you tend to encounter at a young age, but we know these stories. So, when we start talking about these same stories over and over and over and over without any kind of musical creativity, different sounds that you use, melodies you might use or the beats to sound unique is boring. It's boring. It's like hearing the same story over and over, but not told in an interesting way. That's what was what hip hop was suffering from a bad case of monotony. >> Is there a glass ceiling for Wind of Color from Hollywood right now and if there I what can be done to eliminate it? >> I mean, you know, there is an always an attempt to put a glass ceiling on a woman in general, but I think networking is the key. It's about working together. It's about connecting with people who don't look at you with limits. I cannot say I've had a-- do I have a glass ceiling? I don't think so. Not that I feel, I know usually what I rap, put my mind to, you know, my team and I were able to accomplish. >> Unless you never have been in a point where you had felt frustration sort of in the Hollywood. I'm sure maybe [ unk ] early in your career. >> Absolutely. But you know what? You ran into stupid people everywhere, unfortunately. It doesn't matter if it's the cab driver who doesn't wanna stop for you or, you know, or go pass 110th St. or, you know, if it's some executive who somehow managed to become in a position or power to green light movies who has no clue. I mean, you know, some things are just timing and determination and perseverance. >> Are you reluctant to be titled as a role model for women with [ unk ] real bodies? >> I'm thankful to be a role model for women with real bodies, if you will. I've had a guy who drove me in his limousine and tell me, you know, his 12- year old daughter has a beautiful voice and she was afraid to sing and she would cry because her classmates would tease her and tell her she's never gonna make it. She can't do this and by looking at me she started singing again and she's like, " If Queen Latifah can do it, I can do it because she looked more like me ." And because she had a Queen Latifah to look at and inspire her to stay on her path, follow her dreams. And so I think it's been a great thing, I feel good about how I'd been able to impact peoples' lives. >> Vanessa Bravo from Gainesville, Florida asked, " What is the thing that you missed the most from when you were not famous ?" >> I miss coming to New York City in this bean, whoever I wanted to be on that particular day. If I want to be a hip hop head and go to a club, Latin corner or somewhere, I could go there, you know. If I wanted to go to the village and just buy something avant garde and just, you know, hang out with all these gay kids in Washington Square Park, I could do that. If I want to go a little farther into the park and hang out with the acrobats, you know, who will flip and I could do that. And there was like all these different me's that I could be. And, now it's like, you know, everybody kinda knows my face, so, you know, you can't just do whatever you wanna do anywhere. You know, you can't pass out and fall out, drank on the ground, somewhere after leaving the club, like, " Ahhh !" You know, speaking gobbledegook because guess what? Somebody's got a camera phone and that's Queen Latifah and it's on Youtube in like 20 seconds. So, unfortunately, that's the world I live in now, but people do recognize me. They may not even be able to speak English and maybe like, "[ unk ] a taxi ." You know what I mean? I never knew taxi was like such a popular movie, but Mexico, Italy, you know "[ unk ] Steve Martin ." Yeah, that was me. You know, it's funny, but hey, you know, what are you gonna do? This is what we do it for, get it out there. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"10 Questions for Queen Latifah","description":"The rapper-turned-actress has a new film, The Secret Life of Bees. She answers reader questions here","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/gC08LDCG/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2008-10-17T15:49:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gC08LDCG.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/gC08LDCG/","duration":"PT6M4S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/gC08LDCG/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```