Queen Latifah Brings Up Racism At The VH1 Hip Hop Awards

Queen Latifah Brings Up Racism At The VH1 Hip Hop Awards  

BHR Hollywood Reports............Queen Latifah was one of the music pioneers honored at last night's VH1 Hip Hop Honors and during the event the rapper and actress not only praised her fellow female artists, but spoke out about racism and change.

Latifah told the audience, "All of these queens in this building, we built hip hop. We built hip hop. And there’s no way that I can allow us to be erased from the history or the future of hip hop.” Latifah, Missy Elliott, Lil' Kim and Salt-N-Pepa along with DJ Spinderella, were all honored last night.

Queen Latifah 

The singer-actress, 46, praised her fellow female artists for paving the way for the hip-hop genre. “All of these queens in this building, we built hip-hop,” she said referencing fellow honorees such as Salt-N-Pepa, Missy Elliott and Lil’ Kim.

 “We built hip-hop. And there’s no way that I can allow us to be erased from the history or the future of hip-hop. So understand that this has been happening for a long time and it will continue.”

Queen Latifah 

The “Ladies First” singer, who was honored with a tribute by Common, addressed high racial tensions following the deaths of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and the five Dallas police officers. “Listen we all know that the world, that our world, is really tense right now.

Queen Latifah 

 It’s a lot of angst. It’s a lot of hurt. A lot of pain,” she said. “I’m hoping that we can somehow manage to channel all of these emotions that we have in a positive way by not taking ’no’ and really do something to change our world.

 "I don't care how much or things I have, or Puff has, if I go outside and try to hail a cab and he passes me for the white woman standing right there, that racism is still alive and kicking.

 And we have to change that. And I'm not blaming the white lady, she needed a cab too." She added, "Listen we all know the world, that our world, is really tense right now.

I'm hoping that we can somehow manage to channel all of these emotions that we have in a positive way."