TresSugar

Queen Latifah Reveals Childhood Sexual Abuse

TresSugar — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:43:16 -0700

"I was a kid, and I had no power or control over the situation. I really wish I'd had the strength and the knowledge to say something sooner, because I always wondered, 'did he do that to someone else?' But I accept that the time for action has come and gone."

- Queen Latifah tells Essence magazine in its July issue that she was sexually abused as a child by a teenage babysitter. Like many adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, this caused her, she says, to be wary of others and to have commitment issues.

Source

The Vice Presidential Debate on SNL: Home Run or Ho-hum?

CitizenSugar — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 07:46:16 -0700

The costumes were spot-on down to the fetching French braid, and Queen Latifah stepped in quite convincingly as moderator Gwen Ifill - all the details of the Saturday Night Live skewering of the Vice-Presidential Debate were picture perfect. (Even down to Joe Biden calling himself "Joe Biden." Did you catch that on Thursday?)

The zinger-iest question re-do? The discussion of gay marriage, from Biden's "visiting them in the hospital is just as good," to Palin's it should be an institution "between two unwilling teenagers." And then there was the talent portion. Oh, yes, it was there - I kind of wish the real debate had had one too! Check out the sketch - are you laughing at the fake version?

Rapper Makes Swindling Record Company Fund Her PhD

TresSugar — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:01:46 -0700

"This is a story that needs to be told. I'm an example that you can be a teenage mom, come from the projects, and be raised by a single parent, and you can still come out of it a doctor."

Stories about record companies screwing musicians out of royalties are standard news, but Roxanne Shante's struggle with her former label has a happy ending.

In 1984 at age 14, Shante had a hit called “Roxanne’s Revenge,” a response to UTFO’s hit “Roxanne, Roxanne.” Considered hip hop’s first female celeb, Shante came before Lil’ Kim, Salt-N-Pepa and Queen Latifah, but did not get as big as they did, and in addition, shady record contracts meant she saw few royalties.

Instead of despairing or giving up, 19-year-old Shante remembered a clause in her Warner Music record contract: the company offered to pay for her education for life. Although she struggled to get them to hold up their end of the deal (Shante figures it was a clause they probably threw in never thinking a teenage mother from the projects would care about education), they finally relented. $217,000 later, she got her PhD in psychology from Cornell in 2001. Shante, now 38, focuses her therapy practice on urban African-Americans who tend to balk at seeking mental health help.

In addition to being a therapist, she offers $5,000 college scholarships each semester to female rappers and gives advice to aspiring female musicians on her MySpace page. Roxanne’s revenge, indeed!