Queen Latifah was recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award during the 2021 BET Awards. On Sunday, an all-female tribute consisting of Moni Love, MC Lyte, Lil Kim and Rapsody performed “Ladies First” and “U-N-I-T-Y” ahead of Latifah’s emotional speech. 

“I want to thank BET for creating an outlet for beautiful blackness to thrive, to shine, when we couldn’t get played on the radio and other places,” she said. “We couldn’t get our videos played in other places; there was BET that allowed us to be in our fullness and to shine."

If for any reason you might find yourself uncertain, here's exactly why Latifah's Sunday award was a bit more than deserved. 

She Solidified Female Empowerment's Place In Rap Music

Latifah, born Dana Owens, is regarded as one of the foremothers of hip hop, having established herself in a mostly male-dominated field with her 1989 debut All Hail the Queen. Africana pride mixed with messages of Black female empowerment set her apart from the rest and led to the creation of one of the most powerful hip hop anthems ever with “U-N-I-T-Y.”

She Starred In One Of The Most Influential Shows Of All Time

And despite a prolific rap discography, Latifah is also technically an accomplished jazz vocalist when you consider her Grammy-nominated, gold-certified project The Dana Owens Album. I don’t know if your favorite rapper can do a cover of “California Dreamin,” but I doubt it. 

Right around the time she was controlling the airwaves with “U-N-I-T-Y,” she casually changed television history with the 1993 Fox sitcom Living Single. The show revolved around six Black professionals with four young women at the center.

The opening theme, that the “Ladies First” artist can be heard singing and rapping on, was only bested by a dancing silhouette who completely ate up the screen.

The show is now considered an iconic piece of Black television but its influence expanded well beyond that. As many have noted, Friends, a 1990s sitcom was basically a non-melanated, copy and paste job of Living Single. And that's not speculation — Latifah confirmed as much in 2016 on The Late Late Show

"It was interesting because when Living Single came out, shortly thereafter, Warren Littlefield, who's president of NBC, they asked him if he could have any show on television — any of the new shows — which one would it be, and he said Living Single," she said. "It was in the newspaper. And the next thing you know, here comes Friends," the entertainer added. 

The interview was done after having just finished the two-year run of her self-titled daytime television show, The Queen Latifah Show.  

Most recently, she returned to the small screen with this year most watched show, CBS’s The Equalizer which has just been renewed for a second season. 

She's A Blockbuster Success

It’s been said that musicians want to be actors and actors want to be musicians. Using that logic, it could've been enough to have a hit show that ran for five seasons. But it wasn’t. Though there seemed to be a flurry of rapper turned actors in the early 90s in the likes of Will Smith and LL Cool J, but few came out of the gate displaying the range like Latifah in her 1996 major film debut Set It Off

Led by an all-Black women cast, the movie was a box office success. A dramedy that put its leading ladies and the audience through the emotional ringer, the tragic ending to Latifah’s character Cleo is still a loss we're lamenting. 

But Set It Off was just a jumping off point for what would become a lengthy and successful career of a leading lady. From 2003’s Bringing Down The House to 2005’s Beauty Shop, leading into romantic comedy 2010’s Just Wright which showed a full-figured woman as a beautiful object of desire, Latifah has had few misses. It's been reported that her last blockbuster film, the 2017 Girls Trip will be followed by a sequel. 

Mama's Been Good To Us

The iconic play, Chicago started a wave of theatre brought to the big screen. The highly stylized musical complete with involved choreography, and spotlit monologues returned $307 million dollars on a $45 million dollar budget. Latifah, quite literally, stole the show with her role as Mama Morton which garnered her a Golden Globe nomination. 

She followed up displaying her Broadway chops in 2007’s Hairspray, where she was featured as "Motormouth" Maybelle Stubbs. The range!

She Puts On For Her People

During an almost 40-year career, the Newark, New Jersey, native has kept her personal life relatively private but her philanthropy has never gone unnoticed. She campaigned
to save music in public schools and is slated to build public housing in her hometown among other selfless acts, as Blavity previously reported

There has long been speculation about her romantic life that she has traditionally been quiet on. But in her BET speech, Latifah ended her thank yous and gratitude with a shoutout to the woman believed to be her longtime partner, Eboni Nichols, and their son before wishing everyone a “Happy Pride."

“Thank you for making Equalizer No. 1. Eboni, my love. Rebel, my love. Peace. Happy Pride!” she said.

I'll go ahead and take it as representation. 

Look at the material here, folks. All hail the Queen!