Twenty-five years after the first queen of hip-hop was stiffed on her royalty checks, Dr. Roxanne Shante boasts an Ivy League Ph.D. – financed by a forgotten clause in her first record deal. “This is a story that needs to be told,” Shante said. “I’m an example that you can be a teenage mom, come from the projects, and be raised by a single parent, and you can still come out of it a doctor.”

Her prognosis wasn’t as bright in the years after the ’80s icon scored a smash hit at age 14: “Roxanne’s Revenge,” a razor-tongued response to rap group UTFO’s mega-hit “Roxanne, Roxanne.”

The 1984 single sold 250,000 copies in New York City alone, making Shante (born Lolita Gooden) hip hop’s first female celebrity.

She blazed a trail followed by Lil’ Kim, Salt-N-Pepa and Queen Latifah – although Shante didn’t share their success.

After two albums, Shante said, she was disillusioned by the sleazy music industry and swindled by her record company. The teen mother, living in the Queensbridge Houses, recalled how her life was shattered.

“Everybody was cheating with the contracts, stealing and telling lies,” she said. “And to find out that I was just a commodity was heartbreaking.”

But Shante, then 19, remembered a clause in her Warner Music recording contract: The company would fund her education for life.

She eventually cashed in, earning a Ph.D. in psychology from Cornell to the tune of $217,000 – all covered by the label. But getting Warner Music to cough up the dough was a battle.

“They kept stumbling over their words, and they didn’t have an exact reason why they were telling me no,” Shante said.

She figured Warner considered the clause a throwaway, never believing a teen mom in public housing would attend college. The company declined to comment for this story.

Shante found an arm-twisting ally in Marguerita Grecco, the dean at Marymount Manhattan College. Shante showed her the contract, and the dean let her attend classes for free while pursuing the money.

“I told Dean Grecco that either I’m going to go here or go to the streets, so I need your help,” Shante recalls. “She said, ‘We’re going to make them pay for this.’”

Grecco submitted and resubmitted the bills to the label, which finally agreed to honor the contract when Shante threatened to go public with the story.

Shante earned her doctorate in 2001, and launched an unconventional therapy practice focusing on urban African-Americans – a group traditionally reluctant to seek mental health help.

“People put such a taboo on therapy, they feel it means they’re going crazy,” she explained. “No, it doesn’t. It just means you need someone else to talk to.”

Shante often incorporates hip-hop music into her sessions, encouraging her clients to unleash their inner MC and shout out exactly what’s on their mind.

“They can’t really let loose and enjoy life,” she said. “So I just let them unlock those doors.”

Shante, 38, is also active in the community. She offers $5,000 college scholarships each semester to female rappers through the nonprofit Hip Hop Association.

She also dispenses advice to young women in the music business via a MySpace page.

“I call it a warning service, so their dreams don’t turn into nightmares,” she said.

Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons said Shante is a shining role model for the rap community. “Dr. Shante’s life is inspiring,” Simmons said. “She was a go-getter who rose from the struggle and went from hustling to teaching. She is a prime example that you can do anything, and everything is possible.”

ShareThis

Ms. Makeba collapsed as she was leaving the stage, the South African authorities said. She had been singing at a concert in support of Roberto Saviano, an author who has received death threats after writing about organized crime.

Although Ms. Makeba had been weakened by osteoarthritis, her death stunned many in South Africa, where she stood as an enduring emblem of the travails of black people under the apartheid system of racial segregation that ended with the release from prison of Nelson Mandela in 1990 and the country’s first fully democratic elections in 1994. [via NYT]

ShareThis

For her latest project, the New Jersey singer says that she will return to her rap root by working with LL Cool J and Dr. Dre. “Dre helped me write some stuff. He wrote some stuff with me and Ludacris wrote a record for me,” Latifah says.

Latifah calls the new album (due in December) “banging” and plans to hit the road next year.

ShareThis

With a nod to the soulful Motown rhythms of the past and a sneer to many of the social and cultural issues that consume the public today, Coppola has crafted an album of musical sugar and spice, filled with sweet, saccharine-tinged melodies and spicy, bold commentaries.

The debut music video from Little Jackie, “The World Should Revolve Around Me” From the album “The Stoop” out NOW in the US on S-Curve Records! Click below to buy!
The Stoop

ShareThis

Boomp3.com

ShareThis

A work of art yet to be rivaled by any artist, let alone a female MC. It changed the game, literally and opened a lane for what would ultimately spawn into neo-soul and the reemergence of conscious music with a musical vibe and intensified spirit.

To celebrate the album, Rolling Stone spoke with many of those responsible for making it: a then-little known pianist named John Legend, D’Angelo, engineer Commissioner Gordon, backup singers, New-Ark producers, Hill’s longtime companion Rohan Marley, her Fugee bandmate Pras Michel and Lauryn of course.

We miss you girl!

ShareThis

Officials for U.S. Senator and Republican presidential candidate John McCain have shot back at Madonna for a segment of her just-launched new concert tour.

Madonna kicked off her Sticky and Sweet world tour at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, on Saturday. During her performance of Get Stupid, an image of McCain is shown alongside those of Adolf Hitler and Robert Mugabe, as well as photos of global warming and destruction.

Later in the concert, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s face is shown in a sequence that also includes images of Mahatma Gandhi, John Lennon and Al Gore.

“The comparisons are outrageous, unacceptable and crudely divisive all at the same time,” said Tucker Bounds, a McCain campaign spokesman.

“It clearly shows that when it comes to supporting Barack Obama, his fellow worldwide celebrities refuse to consider any smear or attack off limits.”

Earlier this month, the McCain campaign released a television ad portraying Obama as a celebrity, juxtaposing images of the Illinois senator with photos of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Shortly after, hotel heiress and notorious party-girl Hilton starred in a tongue-in-cheek internet rejoinder that poked fun at the “wrinkly, white-haired dude” who endorsed her for president with his ad.

ShareThis

“The whole album is about being between 18 and 19; about love,” says Adele. “‘Daydreamer’ is about this boy I was in love with, like proper in love with. He was bi and I couldn’t deal with that. All the things I wanted from my boyfriend, he was never going to be. I get really jealous anyway, so I couldn’t fight with girls and boys. It’s quite a sad album, [with songs about] being cheated on and not getting what you want”.

19 is a superior pop/soul album guaranteed to be one of the more enjoyable listens of the year.

You can catch Adele LIVE in NYC on September 3rd at Webster Hall.

ShareThis

Natalia’s debut release, Nectar, features electronic-accented grooves grounded with just the right guitar & piano chords, sexy rhythms, and a voice with a smooth purity that you just don’t hear any more.

Nectar will appeal to fans of Portishead, Bebel Gilberto, Cibelle and Supreme Beings Of Leisure.

Those who are familiar with Clavier will know that she has often performed in English and Spanish. On Nectar, she decided to go back to her roots and sing for herself, her home, and her people.

Nectar is now in stores and on iTunes.

Clavier will be returning to US soil this September 3rd when she joins Federico Aubele at the Bowery Ballroom.

ShareThis

Employer of the year
Grandmaster of fear
My blood flows satanical
Mechanical, masonical
And chemical… habitual

Always avant-garde, she IS Grace motherf*cking Jones!!

ShareThis