All hail Queen Latifah! Okay, that came out of nowhere, but the truth is when it comes to being popular and multi-faceted, few women can stand in the same room with her. Besides, her first album was titled All Hail The Queen.
No disrespect to Khanyi Mbau or even Kelly Khumalo, but it’s people like Queen Latifah whose autobiographies we should be reading.
She has excelled in almost every area she has ventured into and it seems she is nowhere near done. If she is not rapping or singing, she is starring in a film or a sitcom. If she is not producing a film she is involved in, she is probably hosting some awards ceremony.
It has been inevitable for a long time that Queen Latifah would end up as one of Hollywood’s success stories. To keep us busy until her next project is a throwback sitcom, Living Single, in which she is the lead, Khadijah James, editor of a hip magazine.
We follow Khadijah and her friends as they navigate their personal and professional lives in Brooklyn. We meet Kyle Barker (TC Carson) and Overton Wakefield Jones (John Henton), who live in one flat. In the other Khadijah lives with her cousin Synclaire James (Kim Coles) and her friend Regina Hunter (Kim Fields). We also meet Dexter Knight (Don Franklin), who is Regina’s love interest. Then there is Maxine “Max” Shaw (Erika Alexander), Khadijah’s best pal.
The storylines are cheesy and the clothes baggy, but we will forgive them because it was, after all, the 1990s. The show debuted at a time when The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Family Matters were at their peak, yet it still did well.
For those who missed Queen Latifah’s acting when she appeared on The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, Living Single takes care of that craving. Though she was still young, with a lot to look forward to, it is clear she had the best talent, which is why she is the most successful of all the cast members from this show.
A little trivia about the show is that before it started Queen Latifah lost her brother in a motorcycle accident. She had bought him the bike and was distraught over his death. In his memory, she wore the bike’s key for a long time and if you look closely, you will see it in Living Single.
But that’s not going to cast a gloomy shadow over the show, as Living Single is quite funny and, almost two decades on, it will still crack you up.
• Living Single premieres tonight on Vuzu at 6.30pm.