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Black America Web
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Black America Web
Roxannes Revenge - How A Teenage Battle Rapper Changed Hip-Hop Forever
Source: Richard Bord / Getty 2024 will be remembered as the year of the diss track. In addition to Kendrick and Drake going back and forth, we saw battles between Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion, Ice Spice & Latto, Quavo & Chris Brown. Even Marlon Wayans wrote a country diss track against Soulja Boy. As we celebrate Black Music Month, it's only right that we credit the first diss track to become a viral sensation. At just 10, Roxanne Shanté was making noise in the underground rap scene. By 14, she was an undefeated battle rapper and a member of the Juice Crew. That opportunity came when she ran into neighbors Marley Marl, Mr. Magic, and Tyrone Williams, who were frustrated after U.T.F.O. backed out of a show. Though hesitant at first, Shanté was convinced to record a freestyle that became a seven-minute track disrupting U.T.F.O's plans. The diss track played on U.T.F.O's unreleased song 'Roxanne Roxanne', Which Shanté used as fuel freestyled from the woman in the song's perspective, to mock the group's manhood. 'Roxanne's Revenge' was released in 1984, reached #22 on Billboard, sold over 250,000 copies in New York, and sparked what's known as the 'Roxanne Wars', a battle resulting in over 30 response tracks. STAY INFORMED! CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER! This catapulted Shanté from local battle rapper to Juice Crew member, earning her recognition as one of hip-hop's best battle rappers. Roxanne was a rising star credited by Nas as an inspiration. But with fame came challenges, especially for a dark-skinned girl under 18. Beyond battling rappers, she faced physical and sexual abuse, foster care, colorism, and sexism. Decades later, women like Megan Thee Stallion, Latto, and GloRilla face similar backlash. Yet, like Shanté, they respond with bars that prove they can outrap men in the genre while facing systemic challenges. Source: Al Pereira / Getty Today, Roxanne Shanté's legacy lives on as a blueprint for authenticity in hip-hop. From lighting the Empire State Building during hip-hop's 50th anniversary to hosting on LL Cool J's Rock The Bells Radio, and receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2025 Grammy Ceremony, Shanté continues to champion the culture she helped define. Her journey from teenage battle rapper to respected pioneer has inspired generations of female MCs to speak their truth without apology. Source: ETIENNE LAURENT / Getty LIKE US ON FACEBOOK . FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER . SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE . STAY INFORMED! CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER! HEAD TO THE HOMEPAGE SEE ALSO
NBC News
31-01-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
Rap icon Roxanne Shanté earns a lifetime achievement Grammy
Hip-hop legend Roxanne Shanté, who pushed the art form forward as a teenage battle rapper in the 1980s, is set to become the first solo female rapper to take home a Grammy for lifetime achievement. 'I would have never thought that I was going to get a Grammy,' Shanté, 55, told NBC News this week ahead of Saturday's ceremony, where lifetime achievement and other special awards will be presented. 'My music days were over. For me to receive a lifetime award, not for my music but for the decisions that I made, is amazing,' Shanté said. 'I'm here for deciding to do the right thing by everybody else, even when so many people decided to do the wrong thing by me.' Her story goes back to hip-hop's formative years, in the early '80s. By age 10, she was becoming a fixture in New York City's underground rap scene; at 13, she was an undefeated battle rapper. But Shanté made waves in 1984 with 'Roxanne's Revenge,' a response to the Brooklyn rap group UTFO's 'Roxanne, Roxanne.' Her single sparked the Roxanne Wars, an early rap beef that inspired at least 86 response songs. Shanté grew up in the Queensbridge Houses, New York City's largest public housing project. Among the residents of the Queens complex were many of her childhood friends-turned-protégés and collaborators, including the future music legends Nas, Biz Markie, Tragedy Khadafi and Big Daddy Kane. Before she became a rapper, Shanté said, she was more interested in the wordsmithing of comedians like her idol, Nipsey Russell. But boys in her neighborhood kept challenging her to rap battles, and she would always end each battle as the victor. 'The music found me,' she said. Soon enough, Shanté was battling men more than twice her age — and still winning. When she recorded the famous freestyle 'Roxanne's Revenge' with legendary DJ and producer Marley Marl, the seven-minute record cemented her name in music history. But she said this was something of an accident. She did not intend for the song to become a diss track, nor did she know the freestyle was in response to UTFO. While she was on her way to do laundry, Marley Marl, who was a neighbor, asked if she could record a freestyle. Shanté initially declined but was swayed when he offered to get her and her sister three pairs of Sergio Valente jeans. Seemingly overnight, the freestyle hit radio waves across the country. But Shanté recalled seeing only subtle shifts to her life. 'Life after 'Roxanne' was honestly regular,' she said. 'I mean, maybe you could say that I was a little more popular than I was, but I was already popular. Before I became Roxanne Shanté, I was Shanté from 12th Street, so I was already a well-known rapper.' At the time, hip-hop was still considered an underground art form, and not the multibillion-dollar industry it would become. Despite the song's success, Shanté was barely compensated for the performance, but 'being able to travel the world was the best thing that I ever got out of being Roxanne Shanté,' she said. Shanté ended her rap career in the 1990s. 'It was never something that was financially beneficial for me. Like, I never got the big signing bonuses and I never got the huge checks and I never got those things, and never lived in a mansion or anything like that.' Now, more than 40 years later, the MC is finally seeing financial rewards and industry recognition. Rap star Nas, a former Queensbridge resident, said he was inspired by Shanté's success in the '80s. 'Roxanne Shanté sparked something in me that really made me want to take [rap] serious,' Nas said on the radio show 'Ebro in the Morning' in 2020. 'She is one of the reasons I really thought it was possible that it could even happen.' That year, Shanté became the host of a SiriusXM show on LL Cool J's 'Rock the Bells' channel. The story of 'Roxanne's Revenge' was documented in the 2017 biopic 'Roxanne Roxanne,' starring Chanté Adams. The film portrays her life growing up in a single-parent household, helping her mother raise her siblings, becoming a mother at 16 and overcoming the day-to-day challenges of living in public housing. It also showed the world that her story is 'proof that the projects can progress,' she said. The film and Adams won the special jury prize for a breakthrough performance at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. In 2023, Shanté was honored with the NAACP Legacy Award, and last year, she received the Hip-Hop Grandmaster Award from the Paid in Full Foundation, which pays hip-hop artists who were not properly compensated for their work. That night, Shanté went home with around $1 million. If she could go back in time, Shanté said, 'I would tell my 14-year-old self that it's going to turn out all right. Like, don't worry, don't stress, it's going to turn out fine. You may think that you're not going to make it. You may think that you're not going to live past 18 or 21, but I'm getting ready to let you know right now, you're going to live to be a healthy, wealthy old lady. And stop swallowing bubble gum — it's not good!'
