Queen Latifah: Order In The Court : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

In the four years since Queen Latifah's last album went gold and she won a Grammy, rappers have been getting rich, showing tits and making stiffs more than ever. Now the Queen is back, declaring Order in the Court. She also has her eyes on large prizes: Her long-awaited fourth album relies on such chart tactics as star turns (Pras, Dru Hill, Faith Evans), recycled refrains (one track reworks "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," another "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On") and multiple producers. That doesn't mean the film star has left her conscience at the bank door, but it does mean she's become more of a player than an innovator. On tracks like "Bananas" and "Parlay," she steps back from the blend of croon and rap she has helped pioneer on recent records and returns to the tough proclamations of yore.

But every warrior must have an Achilles' heel; Latifah has always seemed afraid to show hers and has been a stiff romantic – her softness seems a pose. Which makes the album's last track, "Life," an ode to Tupac and Biggie, all the more affecting. Latifah suffered through the death of her own brother in 1992, and perhaps that loss adds the needed touch of realness to Order in the Court's boastful business as usual. This time, when she sings, "My body wants you," Latifah sounds like she means it.

EVELYN MCDONNELL

(Posted: Jul 9, 1998)

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Track List

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Bananas (Who You Gonna Call?) - (featuring Apache) (track not available in Rhapsody)
Court Is In Session (track not available in Rhapsody)
No/Yes Skit
No/Yes
Turn You On (track not available in Rhapsody)
Black On Black Love - (featuring Next/Antonique Smith) (track not available in Rhapsody)
Parlay
Paper (track not available in Rhapsody)
What Ya Gonna Do - (featuring Inaya Tafan) (track not available in Rhapsody)
It's Alright (track not available in Rhapsody)
Phone Call Skit
Brownsville (track not available in Rhapsody)
I Don't Know - (featuring Sisqo) (track not available in Rhapsody)
Life (track not available in Rhapsody)