Who’s ready for new music from Queen Latifah?

The 56-year-old rapper and actress is in the midst of a music-focused year. After hosting the 2026 American Music Awards on Monday, May 25, Latifah is set to join The Voice as a coach for season 30 this fall and get inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2026 in November.

The Rock Hall honor arrives about 16 years since the release of Latifah’s last album, 2009’s Persona, a fact that isn’t lost on the Grammy winner. “Note taken, I’m going to drop some music,” she tells PEOPLE. “You know, I got all this music at home, and I forget y’all haven’t heard it. I need to let somebody else hear it other than my friends.”

Despite the long break from releasing an album of her own, Latifah’s kept a foot in the music world by performing shows (including a surprise appearance at 2025 Coachella with Megan Thee Stallion) and featuring on songs by artists including MC Lyte and Dolly Parton. “I just feel so close to it regardless,” she says.

“I do enough things that allow me to get out there and sing or rap or do shows so that people can remember. Lest they forget how I got into this game. Let me show you right quick,” adds Latifah. “I keep it in my back pocket at all times. But yeah, I guess it has been a minute, so probably will drop some new music this year.”

“It’s time,” she declares. “Get ready for the many genres that it will come out in.”

Latifah was announced as one of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2026 inductees in April. She’s set to receive the Early Influence Award alongside Celia Cruz, Fela Kuti, MC Lyte and Gram Parsons.

Additional 2026 inductees include Phil Collins, Billy Idol, Iron Maiden, Joy Division/New Order, Oasis, Sade, Wu-Tang Clan and the late Luther Vandross in the performer category. Linda Creed, Arif Mardin, Jimmy Miller and Rick Rubin will be honored with the Musical Excellence Award, while Ed Sullivan will receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award.

“I’m getting inducted with my girl Lyte [and] Luther Vandross, whose music I play every day just to get up in the morning. Literally all the time I’ll play ‘Never Too Much,’” says Latifah. “It’s just a song that has gone with me through my entire life, pretty much. And it has this energy to it where it gets me right where I need to be to have a good day.”

Vandross isn’t the only artist in the Rock Hall’s 2026 class that holds a special place in Latifah’s heart. “Every day I would get off work shooting The Equalizer in New York, I have two albums that would be sitting in my house by my turntables… one was a Celia Cruz En Vivo album and one was Sade, and I would play either one of those records when I would come home for work,” she says.

“It’s really almost odd to be inducted with people who are such influences and such heroes in my mind, but such a huge, huge honor to be in anything that’s a class with them,” continues Latifah. “And let’s not even get into Billy Idol.”

The 2026 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be taped on Nov. 14 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The ceremony will be available to watch in December on ABC and Disney+.