Roxanne Shanté — Bad Sister

In 1984, the UTFO release "Roxanne, Roxanne". A normal song, fine, about a girl, nothing too interesting. In the same year, however, this trio cancels the presence in a show hosted by Mr. Magic and Marley Marl. For this insignificant suburban trio is the beginning of the end.

Lolita Gooden is only a 14-year-old who is walking the streets of Queensbridge when she runs into Marl, Mr. Magic and Tyrone Williams (founder of Cold Chillin') who are discussing what happened: the girl offers to make a dissing record towards UTFO, under the moniker Roxanne Shanté and Marley Marl agree to produce it. "Roxanne's Revenge" is released. Shanté becomes one of the first female rappers to enter the game (don't forget MC Sha Rock with Funky 4+1), the first to produce a single soloist and will remain for a few decades the youngest artist to have entered hip hop.

The piece is boastful, sarcastic, bordering on obscene and becomes a fiery hit that spawns over a hundred response songs, sparking what became known as the «Roxanne Wars». It's estimated that during this period the song sold over a quarter of a million physical copies in and around New York City alone. UTFO flips out and threatens to sue Shanté for using their music as the backing track for her song, Shanté settles and re-releases the song with a different beat.

The song is a great freestyle of Shanté, UTFO's career soon sank into the sinister irrelevance. The group, put on the ropes, is playing the card The Real Roxanne, but Shanté is unleashed and continues to respond shot by shot, is the hottest name of the moment and is going strong. The first and biggest dissing battle of hip hop is born and dozens of rappers from the Five districts arrive: Roxanne's parents, brothers, sisters, boyfriends, doctors, grandchildren, grandparents, until the The East Coast Crew straight from Camden, New Jersey, says "STOP!" with "The Final Word - No More Roxanne (Please)", and the war ends in 1985.

In the following months, she publishes "Queen of Rox (Shanté Rox On)", "Bite This", "Runaway", "The Def Fresh Crew", "I'm Fly Shanté" featuring Steady B and "Pay Back", her last single with Pop Art Records. In 1986, the emcee is guest in Brandon Cooke single "Sharp as a Knife (Acid Attack)", and in 1987, Roxanne Shanté signs with Cold Chillin', releasing "Have a Nice Day", is first single as a main artist to peaks the charts since "Bite This". It's followed by "Go on, Girl", inserted in the movie soundtrack of "Colors" (1988) and distributed by the major Warner Bros., then the rapper is featured in "Juice Crew All Stars" and in the hit "Loosey's Rap" by Rick James, peaking #1 among rnb singles. With the soloist track "Wack Itt" she's included in Marley Marl's debut "In Control, Volume 1" (1988).

Four years after "Roxanne's Revenge" the war is over. The game has changed so many times in so few years that it's hard to keep up. The disco rap is long gone. The electro as it came is gone. R&B fillers are viewed with suspicion. Rap rock has arrived and has just said goodbye. Ballads are about to go extinct. The skeletal, raw, minimal type of beats have dominated these five years, yet the layered samples are going to push them out of the game forever.

Almost nothing is known about Roxanne Shanté. She has continued to release singles, but almost all of them have been ignored by the public. She was about to win the 1986 "New Music Seminar's MC World Supremacy Belt" rap contest for the title of «Best World's MC», when after crashing six/seven opponents, she found herself in front of Busy Bee, humiliated by Kool Moe Dee in a historic freestyle five years earlier: despite she's much better, it's decide that the man must pass the turn due to political choice, as revealed later by Kurtis Blow (one of the judges) to Shanté herself. In '88, she participated in Marley Marl's debut studio album, with only one on the last track, which unfortunately, was the worst of the entire LP. And the remix of her track, present here, is even worse.

In 1989, five years after her arrival, she released her first studio album: the novelty of the female rapper is surpassed with the definitive entry of the devastating MC Lyte; Shanté for her part has no longer the energy of the past years nor rhythms solid enough to be able to drive the album alone. The effort is entirely produced by Marley Marl, Craig G is the only guest. While the B-side presents pretty mediocre and generic tracks and sees a general drop in the overall quality of the effort, Roxanne delivers a solid A side with good cuts composed of funky and fresh rhythms, minimal and hard drum machine, and samples guessed (Isley Brothers, Isaac Hayes, Booker T, Lyn Collins, JBs and James Brown), while the rapper rattles discrete bars with a style that has been dated, by years. It ends up being the debut of a legendary artist, among the pioneers of the genre, however, it's just a decent album.

Published by Cold Chillin' and distributed by Reprise, sub-label of the major Warner Bros., the effort is supported by five singles ("Have a Nice Day", "Go on, Girl", the remix, "Live on Stage" and "Independent Woman"), peaking #52 on rnb chart and being welcomed positively by critics.

Rating: 6.5/10.