Queen Pen is the stage name of Lynise Walters, an American rapper and songwriter from Brooklyn, New York. She emerged during the mid-1990s as a protege of producer Teddy Riley, whose work with Blackstreet helped place her in the center of the decade's blend of hip hop, R&B, and polished pop production. Although she was not always prominently credited in the early releases, her most widely recognized appearance came on Blackstreet's 1996 hit "No Diggity," where she delivered a rap alongside Dr. Dre.
Riley signed Queen Pen to his Lil' Man Records, an imprint distributed through Interscope Records. Her debut album, *My Melody*, was released in December 1997. Executive produced by Riley, the record combined assertive rap performances with melodic R&B arrangements and reflected the commercial sound of late-1990s urban music. The album reached number 78 on the Billboard 200, number 13 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and number one on the Heatseekers chart.
Her early recordings established Queen Pen as a rapper with a conversational delivery and an ear for crossover hooks. Rather than relying solely on hard-edged battle rhymes, she moved comfortably between street-oriented verses and accessible, relationship-centered material. Her association with Riley also gave her music a strong New Jack Swing and contemporary R&B foundation, linking her work to the vocal harmonies and rhythmic production that defined much of Blackstreet's commercial success.
After a hiatus of approximately three years, Queen Pen returned with *Conversations with Queen* in 2001. Released through Motown and Universal, the album featured less direct involvement from Riley than her debut and did not match the commercial impact of *My Melody*. It nevertheless continued her mixture of rap and R&B, with songs such as "I Got Cha" and "Ghetto Divorce" representing the next phase of her recording career.
Queen Pen's recorded discography remained small, consisting primarily of her two studio albums, but her influence is tied to the visibility she gained through "No Diggity" and the candid subject matter of "Girlfriend." Following her music career, she expanded into literature, publishing *Situations: A Book of Short Stories* in 2002 and the novel *Blossom* in 2007. Her career therefore spans a notable moment in 1990s hip hop, when female rappers were increasingly moving into mainstream R&B and pop settings while still using the form to address subjects that challenged the genre's conventions.