Roxanne Shante

Roxanne Shante

Genres: Rap

Styles: Old-School Rap

Active: 1980s

Born: November 9, 1969 in Queens, New York, NY

Aka: Lolita Gooden

Member of: Juice Crew

Born Lolita Shante Gooden, Roxanne Shante was part of a phenomenon that took place in 1984.

UTFO’s song “Roxanne Roxanne” was a huge hit that year about their attempts to seduce a woman named Roxanne.

One night Shante overheard WHBI’s Tyrone Williams, Mister Magic, and Marley Marl discussing the fact that UTFO has skipped out on promised appearance.  Shante offered to record a dis record.  Her skills seemed up to par despite only being around 14-15 years old.

Marley produced and she rapped the song, “Roxanne’s Revenge” and it made them both famous.  In fact, Shante couldn’t go to school because so many people would stand outside of her classroom.

Following her success there were over one hundred more “Roxanne” answer records.

She began to tour constantly, freestyling her way through all takers.  He war with UTFO continued as she would do anything to sabotage their shows and make them look bad.

She had a few other hits (written by Big Daddy Kane) like “Have a Nice Day” and also “Go on Girl” from the movie Colors. She also did a duet with Biz Markie in 1986 called “Def Fresh Crew”.  She also worked with Rick James on a “Loosey’s Rap.”

Other tracks of note were “Payback” and “Freestyle” in 1987

1990 saw the release of “Big Mama” which took on every other female rapper in the game.

Her most recent appearances were on the album “QB’s Finest” on a track called “We Live This” and on the a single from the UK group Mekon.