Roxanne Shante

Biography

Lolita Shanté Gooden, 9 November 1969, Queens, New York, USA. Shanté came to prominence at the tender age of 14 via her belated answer record to U.T.F.O.’s 1984 rap hit, ‘Roxanne, Roxanne’. Gooden was walking outside a New York housing project when she overheard three men discussing U.T.F.O.’s cancellation of a show they were promoting. In turn Gooden offered them a reply record. The onlookers, DJ Mister Magic, Tyrone Williams and Marley Marl, took her up on the offer. Her version, ‘Roxanne’s Revenge’, mixed sassy, indignant raps with a funky backbeat. It was a massive hit, which sold over a quarter of a million copies in the New York area alone, and spawned a flood of answerback records (well over a hundred at the final count), as rappers queued to take up the challenge. U.T.F.O. replied by suing her for using their b-side as the rhythm track. Shanté was still only 14 years old, and forced to stay away from...

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