The Ledge - Cue The Rain is a song written by Stevie and on Queen Latifah's new CD

By Rich Lopez Staffl Writer
Aug 20, 2009 - 10:06:13 AM

“Persona”
Queen Latifah
Flavor Unit Records

Queen Latifah’s newest release, “Persona,” is two things: It’s a pop confection filled with ready-made hits for both the gay dance floors and Radio Disney. It’s also a painful reminder that we’ll never hear the breakthrough female rap and hip-hop Latifah burst onto the music scene with 20 years ago with “All Hail the Queen.”

Latifah brings back the rap and proves immediately she’s kept her skills with the strong enough opener, “The Light.” Unlike fellow Jersey-girl Whitney’s latest, where you can hear cracks in the vocal armor, Latifah’s rapping voice has stayed strong with no signs of wear. Her lungs keep it flowing and the beat plays out with strong hip-hop foundations while holding appeal for mainstream radio.

ALL HAIL THE QUEEN: Queen Latifah splits her personalities with mixed results as pop diva, rap artist and torch song singer in her newest album “Persona,” set to drop Aug. 25.
With a dance beat akin to an arena rock concert the song thrusts into becoming a club classic. “Cue the Rain” is so well executed, the need to move your body to the music is practically necessary. She sings about some strained love affair but really, who cares? The song is a success all over and ideal ear candy.

As if there wasn’t enough already going for the song, it was written by Stevie Nicks. You can see “Rain” as the distant cousin to Nicks’ hit, “Stand Back,” another train of a song that was intended for the pop scene but became a dance classic.

These two songs were enough to satisfy — but there were 12 more tracks to go through.

Missy Elliot guest stars on “Fast Car.” The song fits well in the party ambience of the disc but it’s a missed opportunity. It’s something to imagine these two titans, together however Latifah merely sings while Elliot raps. Did I miss something here? This could have been the Whitney–Mariah equivalent to hip-hop as a classic rap duet/duel but they opted to go the path of least resistance with each phoning it in. Elliot is always clever though with lyrics like, “Spread my love like the swine flu.”

Cameos start to distract, however. It’s as if Latifah is shooting for street cred, but with the likes of other performers in her same realm. Busta Rhymes appears on “Hard to Love Ya” and Mary J. Blige sings on the 11th track, “People.” Here, Latifah gets a little Will Smith on us by sounding overly preachy with a saccharinely positive message and PG rating. There’s nothing wrong with spreading a good word, but it comes off like the first lesson in Inspirational Lyrics 101: “People are just people / Leave it in God’s hands / Cause the devil is just lethal.” Lame.

Her biggest misstep is the final track, “The World.” She tries going an octave lower and fails miserably. She seems to have a handle on her talents but she should have known better than to end on this hot mess.

The point of “Persona” is apparently to display those varied talents but with an exhausting 14 tracks, it’s easy to stop caring midway through. It’s a workable blend of hip-hop, pop, R&B and rap with even some rock and jazz thrown in. Fortunately, Latifah keeps the ride interesting by never compartmentalizing the tracks into genres. But despite a strong start, “Persona” peters out by the end.

Grade: C+

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