This hurt me to even have to tell this story.  It was such a great story for hip hop, such a great story for kids...just an all around great story of overcoming adversity, triumph, getting to the top, falling off, and clawing your way back again.  But first, let me give you a little background...way back to the early 80's...

Rap group UTFO scored a hit with the song Roxanne Roxanne...It was a classic joint about a chick (Roxanne) that wouldn't give a dude no play.  People ate it up, and the song was a runaway success.  Check the song below...

Now back in the 80's, answer records were a tradition...shit, it was almost EXPECTED for a few answer records to pop up, responding to a hit song.  And Roxanne was no exception.  A firey young 14 year old recorded a track for an indie label, answering the UTFO record.  The young girl became known as Roxanne Shante', and her song was Roxanne's Revenge.

Roxanne Shante's joint was a smash hit, in 80's terms.  It was 84, and the record sold 250,000 copies...in NYC ALONE.  Hell, most artists can't sell 250,000  in 2009 WORLDWIDE!  Roxanne Shante was officially the first female hip hop celebrity...at 14 years old. Now here's where the story gets good, and then goes really, really bad.

At 19, which would have been about 1989 (the beginning of the Gangsta Rap era), Roxanne Shante found herself a victim of the fall offs...she was 19 years old, no record deal, no income because of the shady contracts...basically back to square one...that is, until she "remembered" a clause in her record contract with Warner Brothers, to fund her education FOR LIFE.  Now what record label thinks that a 14 year old black girl from the hood is every gonna do anything past college, right??

So as the story goes, Roxanne (real name Lolita Gooden), with a few allies in tow, went to war against Warner Brothers, making them honor their contractual obligation to fund her education...and in the end, she won...to the tune of over $200,000.  Roxanne went on to recieve her bachelors degree from Marymount Manhattan College, and later got her Masters and Ph.D from Cornell University.  Roxanne then went on to start an "unconventional therapy practice focusing on urban African-Americans," in which she "incorporates hip-hop music into her sessions, encouraging her clients to unleash their inner MC and shout out exactly what's on their mind".

Sounds like a great story, right?  Problem is, NONE OF THAT SHIT IS TRUE...

MSN's Slate.com went and did some digging.  And here's what they found out...

• Warner Brothers Never even had a contract with Roxanne Shante (Lolita Gooden)
• Roxanne's contract was with an indie, Cold Chillin Records, who's lawyer never negotiated a contract to pay for an education
• She doesn't have a Masters Degree or a Ph.D from Cornell...or ANYWHERE
• Cornell University doesn't even have a record of a Lolita Gooden as a student at their university...EVER
• Marymount Manhattan College says Lolita Gooden was a student from Feb 6 - May 23, 1995...3 months.  Never Graduated.
• There's no one by the name of Lolita Gooden licensed to practice Psycology or any related field in the ENTIRE STATE OF NEW YORK

When Slate asked Shante about it, Shante had a gang of excuses...including...

1. The Daily News (who originally reported the story) made a MISTAKE.  She never finished her Ph.D, but she absolutely did receive her Masters from Cornell University...
2. She "absolutely" received her Bachelors from Marymount Manhattan, but didn't attend the graduation ceremony...
3. She attended college under an "alias", because of a domestic violence situation...
4. She made a mistake on her application and put her old name, so it's a computer error...
5. "Hip Hop paid for (her) education".

When asked to send in a copy of her degree, she declined.

Okay...now you know I gotta put my 2 cents in.  Now Dr. Roxanne Shante...As I college gradute myself, I gotta let you in on a few points...call it game if you will.  I mean, cuz if you gon lie, then you gotta at least know how the game goes, so that you don't get yo whole spot blown up by some geek at microsoft with google and a cell phone.  So let me run it down for you...

1. You can't attend college on an Alias.  Cuz your name has to match your Social Security Number...and in college, they do EVERYTHING by your Social Security Number...hell, you have to put your SSN on TESTS you take in college!!
2. GRADUATING FROM COLLEGE means that you COMPLETED THE DEGREE REQUIREMENTS...It doesn't mean that you attended some ceremony and walked across a stage and shook someone's hand.  So the fact that you didn't attend graduation DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING.
3. If you made a "mistake" on your application, that shit would be INSTANTLY corrected...because again, your name wouldn't match your SSN.

Dr. Roxanne...if you really did graduate, and you really do have those degrees, then all you gotta do is TAKE A PICTURE OF YOUR DEGREES (that every single doctor I've ever known has on their WALL) and post them on the internet.  Trust me, that shit will spread like wildfire.  That's all you have to do.  I mean you're a Doctor, so you DO have a cell phone right??

I hope you're not lying.  I really do.  Cuz this is bigger than you.  There are kids who never even heard your song, but know your story.  And somewhere, some little girl in the hood is inspired by your story...that it's possible for a girl from the projects to actually BECOME more than a baby mama...that she can actually BECOME a Doctor or a Lawyer, or a Scientist.

And somewhere, some little girl's heart is breaking because you chose to lie about your accomplishments, and dash her hopes of what's possible.

And I'm sure her boyfriend is calling her now...

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Comments (4)

• |2009-09-03 23:30:44 Loftwah  - Just sad
  That is just sad, I think the story is good but just replace the real person (faking it all) with a fictional character and make a Disney flick about it. Kids will be inspired and everybody will forget about this so called doctor.
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• |2009-09-04 06:02:44 Kid Beats  - SMH
  How the hell did it take so long for someone to expose her? If she received a Ph.D from Cornell she should have had something along the lines of published research.
  
  SMH.
  
  
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• |2009-09-11 04:44:54 Anonymous
  You call yourself a doctor?
  She said "This is true!"
  Explain-to-me-really-what-doctors-must-do!
  
  
  Seriously, I wonder what she was doing during the time she supposedly was getting her degrees.
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• |2009-09-12 19:21:45 Noyzi07
  Please be real... Roxanne Roxanne
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