While watching a re-run of VH1′s “100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs” today, Queen Latifah’s “Ladies First” really stood out to me. Her current CoverGirl look (see above) is a pretty dramatic shift from where she was when All Hail The Queen came out in 1988. She’ll be hosting the People’s Choice Awards again in January, and her most recent album, August’s Persona, should give her some good tunes to work with if she sings during the broadcast.

To get a feel for how a strong woman like the Queen can evolve, check out the video for her classic “Ladies First” below…

Devendra Banhart’s new album, “What Will We Be,” came out last week, and Stereogum is offering a free stream of samples from it. If you’re new to Devendra, you might remember him as having dated Natalie Portman and featured her in the video to his trippy song, Carmencita.

Here’s the video for Carmencita, which is pretty cool:

What did you think?