“Dr.” Roxanne Not A Doctor After All

By News One September 2, 2009 3:53 pm

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From Slate.com:

It was the feel-good story of the summer. According to the New York Daily News, Roxanne Shanté, a 1980s female hip-hop pioneer famous for the 1984 underground hit “Roxanne’s Revenge,” had finally gotten her own revenge on Warner Music, the record label she accused of “cheating with the contracts, stealing and telling lies,” to avoid paying her what she was owed. How? After valiantly fighting, reported Daily News freelancer Walter Dawkins, Shanté had convinced Warner to honor a contractual agreement to “fund her education for life.” Warner ended up paying more than $200,000, Dawkins reported, to finance Shanté’s education, which Shanté said included an undergraduate degree from Marymount Manhattan College and a Ph.D. in psychology from Cornell. And now, said the Daily News, “Dr. Roxanne Shanté” has “launched 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.”

The story was endlessly blogged and tweeted, heralded as an example of a heroic triumph by a girl from the projects over her evil record label. Credulous music-industry critics lapped it up; Techdirt, after stating flatly that Warner had “tr[ied] to cheat [Shanté] out of her contract,” reflected the online sentiment: “It’s nice to see how Warner Music actually did some good in the world, even if it had to be dragged there kicking and screaming.”

One problem: Virtually everything about the Daily News‘ heartwarming “projects-to-Ph.D.” story appears to be false.

TAGS: black students, education, hip hop, huge hoaxes, Roxanne

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can_i_massage_u_love

9-4-2009 8:37 am

This really sucks I am so tired of fake ass people. Be straight up! If you gonna play a Dr then don’t attract attention to your self with grandiose stories because eventually someone will vet them and your lie will be exposed.

I loved her music back in the day, even though it was a fad built off of UTFO but I was a juice crew fan so it was good to hear she has made it! Sucks that is was all BS!
big-blue-beast

9-3-2009 2:29 pm

I find it hard to believe that any record company would promise to pay a gifted 14 year old pioneer rapper’s education for life. The people at Warner had to be ignorant and retarded to put that clause in someone’s recond contract. I believe Roxanne Shante always had a lot of potential. That’s why I was never impressed with the from projects to Phd story!
ShaQuana-Tasha

9-3-2009 1:43 pm

Why make up a lie like that? If she made all this up she needs to get serious help
rajarabbit

9-3-2009 12:17 pm

Doesnt make sense why lie like this? Its just hard to beleive she would make up all this. I mean it does sound strange that all of the sudden this is a lie. She said she was DR. numerous times and told the story about Warner paying for her education and nobody contested it before now.
manarasta1

9-3-2009 10:23 am

GO TO MY PAGE TO SEE A NEW PHOTO OF HER
manarasta1

9-3-2009 10:17 am
manarasta1

9-3-2009 10:16 am

HATERS KEEP HATTING SHE IS A REAL PHILOSOPHER AND HER SPEACH IS THE TRUTH AND IM FEELING WHAT SHE IS ABOUT.
HIP-HOP ISNT THE SAME AS IT USED TO BE. HERE IS AN UP TO DATE PHOTO OF HERE WHEN SHE VISITED US IN THE FALLS NIAGARA NY.
PEACE
mesearching4ago2girl

9-3-2009 8:10 am

maybe she’s a compulsive lier?
lilnono

9-3-2009 5:49 am

There is something really bizarre about this story. She has been saying she had a PHD in psychology since at least 1996. Now all the sudden in 2009 somebody does a news story about it and it’s immediately disproved by Slate. Why didn’t somebody disprove it the other 750 times she said it. I wonder if she pissed off some influential person and they deliberately brought attention to this old story just to humiliate her. She attended an event at Cornell just last year. Notice how in this link the story was written in november of 2008 and modified september 2009. I wonder if the original story said that Roxanne was a Cornell Alumni.

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Nov08/hiphopCover.da.html
dyidyi

9-3-2009 3:31 am

Double p.s. Yeah ha that is a old pic, they must have went way back to get that one. Two pair gold (big hoopie) earrins n a chain. LOL the hair style was popular old school a la Queen, Monie Love, Salt n Pepper wore various verison sometimes longer on one side.