Queen Latifa has become the latest hip-hop artist to urge her peers to tone down their language, insisting black rappers should show off their vocabulary instead of rhyming expletives. The rapper-turned-actress has called for hip-hop to start policing itself - to make sure the stereotype of uneducated, thuggish stars disappears. She says, "We should start encouraging people to clean certain songs up because it's just not necessary."When you get used to hearing the clean version of a song in the clubs or on the radio all the time and then you hear the explicit version, it's shocking and it's not very creative."If you could clean up this record and make it sound this good, why did you ever need to make it like that in the first place? Sometimes cursing is an excuse not to use more vocabulary."Dana Elaine Owens aka Queen Latifah began her beatboxing career in Ladies Fresh, a rap group.She released her first album in 1989 All Hail The Queen. The album Nature of a Sista and Black Reign followed and her single U.N.I.T.Y won a Grammy.

But in the late 90's she amde the transistion to movies where she has had great success. She has appeared in the films Set It Off and The Bone Collector.

In 2003 she was cast as Matron 'Mamma' Morton in the film version of Broadway hit Chcargo. For her performance she recieved an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

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