Five years have passed since Black Reign fell on the world of hip hop. Perched between Afracentric lyrical goddess, rowdy cock diesel thugette, and versatile screen star, Dana Owens has stood firmly in her reputation as an MC and her music. With this level of loyalty to her own art and the rowdy fools that helped make her, its truly a shame that her latest LP, Order In The Court, is so bad.

There are exactly three good songs on this album -- the lead single "Bananas," a rough and confrontational battle jam; the Pras-produced, Marvin Gaye influenced "Paper" to the tune of "Heard It Through The Grapevine" (good way to work that label catalogue); and the Femme Force posse cut "Brownsville" featuring the "Velvet Rope/Whoop Whoop" sample that has moved so many clubs already. The riff on Jam, Lewis, Shirelle and Robert Palmer' in "Turn You On" is a hair from being good, but lacks the bassline and necessary "oomph" to take this from the popcorn party jam it is into the level of a righteous tribute.

Then, when you hear R&B inspired fluff like "Court Is In Session" or "Black On Black Love" (a limp attempt at a message song) the listener rushes to the calendar to make sure this is 1998 and not 1992. With songs that remind heavily of the label-controlled and mostly irritating Nature of A Sista album, and a look that is more like her Living Single castmate Kim Fields, Order In The Court is largely an album aimed at girls who enjoy fluffy, meaningless music of the sort Babyface normally produces.

Can La sing? Heck yeah -- some of her notes on "Paper" or "What You Gonna Do?" are downright pretty. But when she croons emphatically in every song, how she needs a king (trying to dispel persistent rumors of finding carpet edible), how hard it is to be a "slash rapper slash actress," it comes off as whining and soft. Alas, the predominately message minded Queen of All Hail The Queen must have perished when Latifah and the Flavor Unit discarded their Native Tongue membership cards, for all that's left here is an musically ambiguous multimedia phenomenon. It'd be nice to hear a few more real hip hop songs, message or braggadocio related.

Latifah wants you to forget her acting, her money, and her business, but you'd be better served remembering all her accomplishments, because it will offset the empty feeling listening to this album will give you.