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!

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Mr. Magic Week # 2 (Tuesday) - "When Magic Met Cavett"

The original Juice Crew had a secret weapon.  Her name was Starrlite Gentry.  One of the first big fans of the "Mr. Magic Disco Showcase", she taped countless WHBI and WBLS radio shows up until the end of the "Rap Attack's" run in 1989.  Though many of these tapes have unfortunately been lost forever in a fire, a precious amount of them still exist, and Fly Ty and Starrlite were kind enough to let me check them out.  Those tapes are the source of the poster that came with the Down The Dial deluxe edition, seen below.  Without her archiving, some of these shows could've been lost forever, never to be heard again.

Here she is requesting Whodini's "Yours For A Night" during the February 17, 1984 show.

One of my random side notes... Starrlite would appear on Street Sounds Hip Hop 18 compilation as the female emcee on Jazzy Keith's "Force Desire," which was also a 12" single on Profile Records.

One of the many gems in Starrlite's collection was a cassette to TV recording of Mr. Magic and Divine Sounds' appearance on the Dick Cavett Morning Show.  As wikipedia has elegantly explained to me, and I quote:

"Richard Alva 'Dick' Cavett is an American former television talk show host known for his conversational style and in-depth discussion of issues.  Cavett appeared on a regular basis on nationally-broadcast television in the United States in five consecutive decades, the 1960s through the 2000s, a feat matched only by Johnny carson."

More importantly, I'm pretty sure he's the guy interviewing John Lennon in Forrest Gump.

I'm going to split this Cavett morning special into two posts, starting with todays interview with Mr. Magic.  I'll save Divine Sounds performance and Cavett's introduction to break dancing for tomorrow.  

I really like this interview.  Magic is well spoken about the hip hop scene, and Cavett provides some one liners that show just how new the genre was to those who weren't at all involved in it. What's with Magic stumbling over the words to "Magic's Wand" though?  These things happen.

Mr. Magic Interview with Dick Cavett (From April 20th, 1984 Tape)

I'm not sure if that's the exact date of this morning show...

Sorry about the loud baby crying at one point.  That's why I figured it was a TV to cassette tape recording.

Meanwhile, I am extremely tired, so I gotta cut this rant short.  A lot of this dialogue from the interview I sampled on the outro to Down The Dial, "Super Blast."  My man Nostalgic came through on that beat.  Check it out below.

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