"U.N.I.T.Y."
Single by Queen Latifah
from the album Black Reign
Released	November 9, 1993
Recorded	1993
Genre	Hip hop
Length	4:14 (censored version) 4:11 (lp version)
Label	Motown
Songwriter(s)	Dana Owens Kier Gist
Producer(s)	KayGee
Queen Latifah singles chronology
"Buddy" (1989) "U.N.I.T.Y." (1993) "Just Another Day..." (1994)
Audio sample
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Music video
"U.N.I.T.Y." on YouTube

"U.N.I.T.Y." is a song by American hip-hop artist Queen Latifah from her third studio album, Black Reign (1993). The single was released on November 9, 1993, in the United States, and on January 6, 1994, in the United Kingdom. "U.N.I.T.Y." focused on confronting disrespect of women in society, addressing issues of street harassment, domestic violence, and slurs against women in hip-hop culture. The chorus of the song interpolates "Unity" by Tenor Saw.^[1]

Because of its message, many radio and television stations would play the song without censoring the words "bitch" and "hoes", which appear often in the lyrics, particularly the chorus and the line, "who you callin' a bitch?!" that ends each verse of the song. The song samples "Message from the Inner City" by the Crusaders, a Houston based jazz group. The song was also featured on Living Single, Latifah's series which began the same year.

There is a second version of the song, titled "U.N.I.T.Y. (Queen Ruff Neck Boot)", which also had notable airplay. This version has a similar beat to the album version, replacing much of the jazz sample with a hip-hop beat, and can be found as a "clean" version on 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best of Queen Latifah and Hip Hop: Gold.

"U.N.I.T.Y." won the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance.^[2] The song remains Latifah's biggest hit single in the United States to date, and her only song to reach the Top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100. In 2022, Pitchfork magazine placed the song on the 95th place in the list of the 250 best songs of the 90s.^[3]

Music video[edit]

The music video was directed by Mark Gerard who also directed Latifah's video for "Just Another Day...". In the video, Latifah rides a motorcycle, in dedication to her brother Lance, who was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1992. The key she catches in the beginning and wears throughout the video is the ignition key to Lance's motorcycle. The video also features a cameo by the rap group Naughty by Nature.

Charts[edit]

The single gained commercial success, peaking at no. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single was most successful on the Billboard Hot Rap Singles chart, peaking at no. 2; the single peaked at no. 7 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

Remix[edit]

A remix version, known as the "Big Titty Remix", can be found on her "Just Another Day..." single.

In other media[edit]

An excerpt from the music video was featured during the closing credits of a Season 1 episode of Latifah's sitcom, Living Single, titled "U.N.I.T.Y. (a.k.a. Five Card Stud)" after the song. The episode itself dealt with the issue of disrespect towards women that the song reflects upon, in which supporting main character Kyle Barker (T. C. Carson)—a friend of Latifah's character, Khadijah James—struggles with whether to stand up to a co-worker (guest star Bobby Hosea) who made disparaging comments about Kyle and Khadijah's friend, Regine Hunter (Kim Fields), following said colleague's date with the latter.

The song is played towards the end of the 1996 film Girls Town and plays during the film's credits.

References[edit]