Rox-and Roxanne... Just When You Thought It Was Over

 

Today I got a little inspired when I was checking out Fatlace Magazine and saw that once again they are killing it, scooping up all the Roxanne battle records known to mankind.  It appears that they have almost completed their saga, which is extremely commendable when we're talking about vinyl and not MP3s.  I figured now's the time for me to reach into my drawers... wait, that sounds a little questionable... reach into my archives and post up a couple goodies.  To the Fatlace crew, you know I'll be hitting you up tonight, not on some "look what I got" shit, but more on some "let's hold hands and archive a saga" steeze.  Scratch that, this miniscule contribution can't touch what they got.  Here's the goods:

Roxanne Shante and Fly Ty Update From Studio 54- March 16, 1985

This one came off a Rap Attack (2nd WHBI era) tape dated March 16, 1985.  Yeahhhh babay!  I'm so happy this tape survived over the years.  A young and (of course) confident Shante giving us the scoop on the evening alongside Fly Ty.  Shante says "Studio 54, what a bore," but becomes a better sport when Ty asks her if she's having a good time. 

"Yes I enjoyed it, you know they paid me to say that, right?"

Classic.  

Starrlite- Watch Out Roxanne (Previously Unreleased... I think)-

I found this at the end of a Mr. Magic Rap Attack tape that came from Mr. Magic's personal collection, dated Wednesday, January 16, 1985.  Starrlite used to run the Juice Crew fan club and taped a great deal of the tapes that Magic let me check out.  If her voice sounds vaguely familiar, you are recognizing it from Force Desire's record, "Jazzy Keith," on which she rhymes.  While the "Jazzy Keith" track was released as a Profile 12", it was also featured on the Street Sounds Hip Hop 18 compilation.  "Watch Out Roxanne," however, I don't think ever saw the light of day.

So, check this out, as some added incentive to my Fatlace buddies, not that you need the added motivation, but you know.... when you complete the saga, I got a couple more very rare Shante goodies that I'll put up on the blog.  Hopefully you'll appreciate them as much as I do, but I don't want to get you guys too amped for something that ain't worthy.  Word.

One more thing- in regards to the Elease the Original Roxanne "The Real Deal" record up on Fatlace.  While I'm not familiar with that record, here's Elease's story as I understand it.  Forgive me if I'm stating the obvious here or am blatantly wrong. Elease Jack was the first The Real Roxanne.  She is the female emcee rapping on the Select Records Roxanne with UTFO record "The Real Roxanne."  At the age of 14 she met B-Fine of Full Force outside of The Funhouse which led to the creation of "The Real Roxanne" record.  Since Jack was so young, I have been told that label relations with Select fell through quickly, and as a result, Full Force reached out to another female performer, Adelaida Martinez, to become The Real Roxanne.

 

UTFO, Full Force, and the Martinez would then film the video for “Roxanne Roxanne,” with Martinez appearing in the video as the object of the group’s affection.  Martinez is the lady who went on to have future singles and albums as The Real Roxanne (Bang Zoom, self titled LP, Go Down But Don't Bite It, etc).  Keep in mind some of my story is sparse and pieced together through myspace claims, so I could have just flexed false knowledge.  Let's hope not!  Fatlace, SchoOoOooOl me!

Tweet