-That's Queen Latifah right there.
Come on. -Oh, my God.
[ Cheers and applause ] Hey!
Roots crew.
-Who in the world is better than you?
You are the best. You're my favorite.
I want to get into this and talk about you
for the next 10 minutes. I want to talk -- the Grammys.
A tribute to hip hop. 50 years of hip hop.
You crushed it. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Oh, thank you. -You were unbelievable!
Came out, smoke and everything.
Did you -- Did you feel the vibe?
-Did you see me smoking? -No, no, no.
-Oh, okay, okay. -I just saw smoke come out
when you came out. -I'm just joking.
-Did you feel the vibe when you were performing?
Could you see what we saw at home?
-I feel like I've been seeing them for days
after days after days. [ Laughter ]
-They did a great job, The Roots.
-Thank God, who else could pull off that but the Roots crew?
[ Cheers and applause ] -Nobody could do that.
-Thanks, Quest. Oh, my God -- Tariq.
I don't know who else could pull that off.
It was amazing. It was --
-People were dancing and going nuts.
And you kind of opened up the party.
It was awesome. I was like --
-People went off. And I heard they brought out
champagne after, you know, after the hip hop segment itself.
-Is that right? -So, it was definitely,
you know, cracking in that audience.
-Yeah, everything got that. They got the party going, yeah.
What was it like to be on stage with all these -- look at this.
-It was so crazy. Oh, my gosh.
-Just generations -- -I mean, you got L,
you got Public Enemy. You know, um --
There's so many people on this stage who, without them,
I would not be here. Like, just Melle Mel,
Grandmaster Flash, the Furious Five.
Like, you know... ♪ Don't push me 'cause I'm -- ♪
Come on now. Like, everybody knows that record.
And I remember being like 15 in Latin Quarters
watching Melle Mel on the stage, rhyming for 20 minutes straight.
And then, KRS-One trying to get the mic from him.
And, like, this is hip hop history.
Like, I wouldn't know anything if Public Enemy
didn't take me out on tour.
Like, I was a baby act on their tour.
-How old were you when you were on tour with --
-I was like 17 or 18 years old.
I had, like, one record out, maybe.
You know what I mean? -What were they like?
-They were like uncles. Honestly, some people
are selfish in this business, as we know.
They were not that.
They wanted to share the information, teach us.
'Cause they know we didn't know anything.
You know, so, instead of, like, you know,
keeping it all to themselves, they showed us how to move
and shake on the road, how to kind of prepare ourselves,
where to be on the stage, how to use -- hold the mics,
and how to do business with the promoters
'cause that's always tricky.
And really, like, helped us to learn
so that we could grow and start our own businesses.
Because we're all little, tiny businesses,
you know, at the time. -Yeah.
Who said to you something like,
"I remember when you had a drum set."
-Oh, that was Method Man. Yo, give it up for everybody
that was on the stage that night.
[ Cheers and applause ] Everybody.
-It was insane! It didn't stop.
-Yo.
And to watch everybody right now, like,
going into all these careers from rap -- from one rap record
to, you know, actors and nominated and all this
and talk shows. This is just amazing, you know,
how hip hop has just become global.
Which we always knew it would be,
but the world -- They fought us, you know?
They wanted to censor us. I mean, we had to go to court
not to be censored. Thanks, Luke.
-Yeah, right. -Ice-T told me
how to move and shake in L.A., you know,
when it was very ganged up. You know what I mean?
Like, "You don't know anything.
Get behind this wall real quick."
-Yeah, "You don't see nothing, bud."
Did you think that it wasn't -- -But it was Method Man.
Method remembers everything.
He was like, "I remember seeing you at Madison Square Garden.
You was opening up for Public Enemy, matter of fact.
And you had a drummer.
And nobody else had a drummer."
And I was like, "Yeah, I had a drummer."
-You wanted that live element? -I wanted that vibe.
I wanted to add on to it, and nobody was doing it.
And then, I took the Fugees out on their first tour.
Fugees went way beyond a drummer.
Like, the Fugees was like, "Okay. We can do that?
Watch this." And they really went crazy.
So, like, we all have shared things with each other
that have taken this hip hop thing to a whole nother level.
-Whole new level. Did it remind you of when you won a Grammy?
-Well, unfortunately, I wasn't there when I won my Grammy.
We weren't even televised at the time.
-No. -So, I won my first Grammy
for "U.N.I.T.Y.," first Rap Female Solo Performance.
-I mean, come on. Absolutely.
-Thank you. [ Cheers and applause ]
-But even then -- -They didn't televise it?
-No. So, even that, it shows you how
the Grammys have evolved because rap was not even
a televised category. Can you imagine?
Like, it wasn't even -- None of it was even on TV.
It was like, "Is this a fad? Is this real?
Should we make it a category?"
Like, we were fighting to become a category.
So, we are way beyond a category now.
And you can see hip hop has influenced all sorts of music,
not just, you know, rap or R&B, but it's all in pop music.
It's all in country music. It's everywhere now.
-Yeah. You know what I thought was fun, too?
Jay-Z obviously could have gotten on stage.
He could've rapped -- -Man, Jay was having so much fun
in that -- Did you see him?
-He was like a little kid. He was like, "Oh, my God!"
You never get to see him like that
'cause he's always just being cool.
He was, like, fanboying out. -Yes.
-I love seeing that. It just made you so happy.
Like, "Oh, he's doing what we're all doing."
-Yeah, we laughed at that afterwards.
Like, yo -- he was like, "Remember us in Mars,
these little clubs?" He was thinking about all --
'Cause we -- I mean, none of us had --
We come from, like, nothing. You know what I mean?
And then we got this music that has taken us everywhere.
So, I think he was seeing his favorites out there, too.
And it just was, like, so much fun.
And LL, of course -- thanks, L, for, just, like --
-He's -- come on. -I think L --
L might've had all of us in a headlock.
He was like, "This thing ain't happening without me.
Let me tell you something. Don't call it a comeback."
-Oh, yeah, come on! -Oh, man.
When "Rock the Bells" dropped, I was like, "Let the beat drop!"
-Yeah! -I was goin' crazy.
-L.L., come on. -You see that radio?
-Yeah. -That blinged-out radio?
I want that radio. -It was blinged out.
-By the way, I want that radio, too.
-I want that radio. I can't front.
-We'll share it. We'll share it.
I quickly want to mention this.
You have a new Audible original here.
-This is amazing. -"Unity in the Community."
I love that you did this.
How do you explain that? It's seven episodes?
-It's a seven-part series. It's seven episodes.
It's an Audible original. I am narrating it.
You will hear me be the voice of Unity.
Let me hold on to that for a second.
-Yeah. -That's just so nice.
-That's so nice. -Look at that.
[ Cheers and applause ] Look at that.
You know? The colors.
The joy. It's just a --
-Come on. -You just feel the love.
-Yeah. -But you know what?
This is -- This tells seven stories of different people
who saw something that needed to change
and decided that they were gonna be that change.
So, whether it was deciding that, "Oh, okay.
I know how to cook, I have a restaurant,
and people are hungry, and it's COVID.
I'm gonna feed people." And they did that.
Or whether it's someone who is of Japanese descent
and is trying to preserve Little Tokyo and its history,
she did that, you know?
Whether it's someone Native who is trying to preserve a park
in Chicago and that culture, they did that.
-It's inspiring. -It's so --
It's all these inspiring stories.
And I got to tell you, just reading it myself,
I was so inspired listening to it, reading it,
hearing their stories that I think you're gonna love this.
So, it's out right now. Check it out on Audible.
And please just -- especially, if you're feeling good, cool.
But if you're not feeling good,
and you want to feel good, listen to that.
-"Unity in the Community" right there.
-Yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]
We are the community. -U-N-I-T-Y.
-That's our unity. -I want to -- [ Laughs ]
I want to talk about "The Equalizer."
Come on! Let's talk about this. -Okay.
So, now we switch from "unity" to "you're wanted with me."
-Yeah, exactly, okay. Now we're switching over.
-Who you calling a what? -Yeah, yeah.
-Okay, now we switching -- -"The Equalizer."
-Crushing, crushing. -Daddy says hi, by the way.
-How's Pop? He's the best. -Yeah, even Pop says hi.
-I love him so much. Please give him a hug.
-I sure will.
-"Equalizer," the biggest show ever.
I knew when it came out, I knew it was gonna be big.
And I'm like, you just keep crushing it and crushing it.
But it is back, February 19th, next Sunday.
-Yes. -It is back.
-It is back. -And it's big.
It's action, it is funny, it is -- it's cool.
Dude, you do everything. -Please tell them again
it's back so they can stop hollering at me.
-It's back. It's finally back.
-It is back. -"The Equalizer" is back!
Stop asking. -Don't call me...
- February 19th! -don't tweet me, don't text me.
-Sunday night, CBS. -Sunday night, CBS.
8:00, 8:00. -8:00 p.m.
Watch that. -Listen, it'll be there.
People are stopping me in the streets about this.
This is serious. -They're like,
"When is it coming back?"
-They're like, "Where's the show?"
And "What's going on?" And "What's all this?"
We will be back.
"The Equalizer" will be equalizing.
-Yes, you will be equalizing. -You know what I mean?
We will be netting some more justice.
It's gonna be cool. -Yeah.
-We get into some sticky situations on this one.
When we come back, there will be some tension
amongst the friends, the group of friends.
-Ooh! -You know, by co-worker buddies.
There's gonna be some issues with the family, you know,
with me, my daughter, and, you know, Laya,
who plays my daughter.
And Aunt Vi -- you know, Lorraine Toussaint.
And, of course, you know,
Tory Kittles with his handsome self.
You know, Dante.
-Yeah, he knows how to do it, right?
-He knows how to do a little something something.
-I like that you film it here. -Yeah, we shoot right here.
-New York, New Jersey. -Yeah.
-Does it weird you out? -It is --
I feel like whoever did the locations
read our bio or something. Me and Shakim were like --
We literately shot at my high school.
Like, we looked at the call sheet and was like,
"This is Irvington High School."
So, we shot in the parking lot.
We're at the high school where I went to high school,
where my mother taught, where I shot
"Latifah's Had It Up to Here" video.
I mean, it is weird. You know what I mean?
We're in Brooklyn in places where I should never be again.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-Did that. You know what I mean?
No need to do it again. -You did that, yeah.
Do you feel like someone up there is loving you.
-I really honestly have, and it kind of gave me
a little bit of -- you know, it was like a constellation.
I was just following the stars for the first two seasons,
and here we are, so thank you so much
for your support and watching the show.
[ Cheers and applause ] -That's great.
I love it. I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's Queen Latifah in a new episode of "The Equalizer."
Take a look at this.
-This doesn't feel like a case.
-No, actually, it's about Mel.
He's been training Delilah in self-defense,
although I expressly forbade it.
-Ouch.
Should've put a shot of whiskey in that coffin.
-I mean, she's my best friend.
Hell, she's like my sister.
But the fact that she would go behind my back like that...
-Feels like a betrayal.
-And I'm trying to move past it.
-Sure you're willing to throw that kind of friendship away
because of one mistake?
-It's not a mistake.
This is my daughter.
-No doubt. You know, a wise woman
once told me that the only person you hurt
by holding a grudge is yourself.
-I was talking about your father.
That's different.
-Come on. Queen Latifah.
That's what I'm talking about. [ Cheers and applause ]
"The Equalizer" is back, Sundays at 8:00 p.m., on CBS,
streaming on Paramount+.
And all episodes of "Unity in the Community"
are available exclusively on Audible.
Queen Latifah and I are doing "The Whisper Challenge"
after the break. Stick around.