In 1984, UTFO come up with a song that concerns a girl they didn't like, such as Roxanne, and put it as the b-side of the single "Hanging Out". This single fades into the background, while "Roxanne, Roxanne", the b-side, gains considerable popularity.
Nothing wrong with that, until they decide to flaked on Marley Marl and Mr. Magic. It's the beginning of the end: out of nowhere, literally, Roxanne Shanté comes out and devastates the group which, humiliated, has to take refuge in some soft dissing. They try to find a rival that lives up to Shanté and, in the end, the choice falls on Adelaida Martinez, who responds to Shanté under the moniker "The Real Roxanne" with the homonymous cut. There follows an endless series of answers that go down in history as the «Roxanne Wars», the first historic dissing war.
In fact, the search for someone to answer to Shanté wasn't easy for the group. In 1985, the boys went on a random search for some young rapper who could adequately respond to the dissing and found their rapper in Elease Jack, who met B-Fine of Full Force, the group that produced UTFO, outside a club in New York. The girl, at the time fourteen years old with no experience in rap, was asked to participate in the music video of the UTFO song and shortly after was contacted by Full Force who asked her to participate in an audition for the part of Roxanne, recording a song as a rapper: Elease Jack got the part and was assigned the title of "The Real Roxanne". Nevertheless, shortly after Elease Jack came into conflict with the group and with Select Records, abandoning the industry — she later releases the single "Boy's" with Gold Records and with "Real Deal" as b-side — and forcing UTFO to look for a replacement: the choice fell on Martinez, who was invited to audition and became the new definitive "Real Roxanne".
Four years later, Roxanne Wars haven't only gone by for years, they have also already been practically forgotten. In this period, the solo album of one of the protagonists of the feud, The Real Roxanne, is released (her first track is excluded here, despite the album title). The production is realized by Full Force, Howie Tee and Jam Master Jay in order to create a boom bap sound typical of the late eighties.
This debut puts some spotlight on the talent of the Puerto Rican girl: she's a good performer, but there are few ideas exploited, lyrically the record shows little quality and musically relies too much on the pop ballads that you must expect from every single female rap album released before 1990. When the record remains hip hop it's quite funny, but when it falls into the ballad it loses much of its naive charm: the rhythms offered by the producers for the ballad songs are easily soft and their performance slows down the pace of the disk.
It opens a minimal and funky rhythm with a simple drum machine on which the rapper delivers inspired, aided by a simple scratched hook. "Look But Don't Touch" follows: skinny funky beat with a simple minimal drum machine, Roxanne slows the delivery down to simple speech, hook not played and left to a questionable bridge. The following piece presents a cheerful and easy-going hook of The Real Roxanne, spoken delivery without excesses on a minimal and rapid rhythm composed of a lively drum machine that would require an appropriate delivery; instead, the female MC prefers to create a musical contrast made with a simple and spoken delivery. All pretty decent, but the first ballad arrives to break this LP in half: "Infatuated", jazzy midtempo rhythm with skeletal and simple drum machine, light production, good delivery and soulful hook sung in an attempt to the celestial ballad, personally one of the most bearable and most successful ballads in a eighties rap record.
Usually, there are a couple on an album, I don't remember two of them ever in a row: lively hook sung, fast dance pop rhythm and delivery sung by Real Roxanne to create this curious precedent. "Don't Even Feel It" is the cut that brings us back to hip hop: frenetic and minimal rhythm, simple, lively drum machine, good delivery of Roxanne that should go faster, but instead delivers as usual, between speech and slow rapping with some brief acceleration. Unlike her second verse, where she decides to deliver with energy, hardcore, without making too many stops with the flow. "Her Bad Self" follows, minimal hard production in which the girl delivers hardcore and destroys the beat with an excellent syncopated flow.
The Real Roxanne releases another hardcore test in the next choice, asphalting yet another minimal beat of the disc; simple hook with bridge, not recited, it's a track slightly higher than those of the A-side, with a good slow and smooth flow of the rapper. Unfortunately, also the B-side is condemned by the ballad, "Oh Darlin'", which again breaks the rhythm of the LP; soulful sung hook and spoken delivery by the female MC over this jazzy dance pop rhythm. Tenth and final song, "Respect": simple, jazzy-funky rhythm, with a rapid and minimal drum machine, it presents a hardcore delivery with a simple and rapid flow to close this pretty decent album.
The album was released by Select in the US and European markets, receiving a lukewarm response in sales (#30 in the rnb chart) and being ignored by critics, if not panned. Martinez stopped her career, only to try again with a single and a full LP four years later, again with Select, by which time the game had changed several times and her name, as well as that of Shanté, had definitely cooled down.
Highlights: "Don't Even Feel It", "Her Bad Self", "Respect".
Rating: 6.5/10.
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