Dana Elaine Owens was born in Newark, New Jersey, on March 18, 1970, and lived primarily in East Orange, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Rita Lamae (née Bray; d. 2018),^[6] a teacher at Irvington High School (Dana's alma mater), and Lancelot Amos Owens, a police officer.^[7][8][9] Her parents divorced when she was ten.^[10]

She was raised in the Baptist faith.^[11] She attended Catholic school in Newark, New Jersey^[12][13] and Essex Catholic Girls' High School in Irvington but graduated from Irvington High School.^[14][15][10] After high school, she attended classes at Borough of Manhattan Community College.^[16]

She found her stage name, Latifah (لطيفة laṭīfa), meaning "delicate" and "very kind" in Arabic, in a book of Arabic names when she was eight.^[10]Always tall, the 5-foot-10-inch (1.78 m) Dana was a power forward on her high school basketball team.^[17][18] She performed the number "Home" from the musical The Wiz in a grammar school play.^[19]

She began beat boxing for the hip-hop group Ladies Fresh and was an original member of the Flavor Unit, which, at that time, was a crew of MCs grouped around producer DJ King Gemini. DJ King Gemini made a demo recording of Queen Latifah's rap song Princess of the Posse, which he gave to Fab 5 Freddy, the host of Yo! MTV Raps. The song got the attention of Tommy Boy Music employee Dante Ross, who signed Latifah and in 1989 released her first single, "Wrath of My Madness". More recent artists, like Ice Cube and Lil' Kim, would go on to sample Latifah's track in their songs "You Can't Play With My Yo-Yo" and "Wrath of Kim's Madness" respectively in later years. Latifah has a two-octave vocal range.^[20]She is considered a contralto, with the ability to both rap and sing.^[20]

Latifah made her mark in hip-hop by rapping about issues black women face. She wrote songs about topics including domestic violence, street harassment, and troubled relationships.^[21] Freddy helped Latifah sign with Tommy Boy Records, which released Latifah's first album All Hail the Queen in 1989, when she was nineteen.^[10] That year, she appeared as Referee on the UK label Music of Life album 1989 – The Hustlers Convention (live). She received a Candace Awardfrom the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in 1992.^[22] The single "Ladies First" featuring Monie Love became the first collaborative track by two female rappers not in a group.^[23] In 1993, she released the album Black Reign, which was certified Gold in the United States^[24] and produced the Grammy Award-winning song "U.N.I.T.Y." In 1998, co-produced by Ro Smith, now CEO of Def Ro Inc., she released her fourth hip-hop album Order in the Court, which was released by Motown Records. Latifah was also a member of the hip-hop collective Native Tongues.

Latifah performed in the Super Bowl XXXIIhalftime show, making her the first rapper to do so.^[25]

After Order in the Court, Latifah shifted primarily to singing soul music and jazz standards, which she had used sparingly in her previous hip-hop-oriented records. In 2004, she released the soul/jazz standards The Dana Owens Album. On July 11, 2007, Latifah sang at the famed Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles as the headlining act in a live jazz concert. In front of a crowd of more than 12,400, she was backed by a 10-piece live orchestra and three backup vocalists, which was billed as the Queen Latifah Orchestra. Latifah performed new arrangements of standards including "California Dreaming", first made popular by 1960s icons the Mamas & the Papas. Later in 2007, Latifah released an album titled Trav'lin' Light. Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Joe Sample, George Duke, Christian McBride, and Stevie Wonder made guest appearances.^[26] The album was nominated for a Grammy in the "Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album" category.^[27]

In 2009, Latifah, along with the NJPAC Jubilation Choir,^[28] recorded the title track on the album Oh, Happy Day: An All-Star Music Celebration, covering the song that the Edwin Hawkins Singersmade popular in 1969.^[29]

In 2008, Latifah was asked if she would make another hip-hop album. She was quoted stating that the album was done already and it would be called All Hail the Queen II. The following year, in 2009, she released her album Persona. The song "Cue the Rain" was released as the album's lead single.^[30] 2011 saw Queen Latifah sing "Who Can I Turn To" in a duet with Tony Bennett for his album Duets II.^[31] In January 2012, while appearing on 106 & Park with Dolly Parton, to promote Joyful Noise, Latifah stated that she had been working on a new album.