Just over a week ago, I published a story titled “Emcee Gets ‘Roxanne’s Revenge.’ Cashes in on Contract Clause for Label To Pay for Ph.D.“  It was one of the very few feel-good, David vs. Goliath stories we’ve ever published about the Hip Hop industry.  Well yesterday afternoon, Slate.com published an article exposing the former artist as a fraud.

According to a published report in The New York Daily News, writer Walter Dawkins asserted that 1980s female hip-hop pioneer, famous for the 1984 underground hit “Roxanne’s Revenge,”Roxanne Shanté had convinced Warner Music Group to honor hidden clause in her contract she signed at 17 to “fund her education for life.” Dawkins also reported that after much resistance, Shanté with the help of a former school employee, was able to force Warner to pick up the tab for her higher education totally over $200,000.  This education, Shanté asserted, included an undergraduate degree from Marymount Manhattan College and a Ph.D. in psychology from Cornell University.  It is upon this education foundation that “Dr. Roxanne Shanté” opened an “unconventional therapy practice” where she uses hip-hop to help her clients “unleash their inner MC.”

According to an investigation by Slate.com however, all this was bogus.  In an interview with Slate after the Daily News article, Shanté, whose government is Lolita Shanté Gooden ADMITTED she doesn’t have a Ph.D. from Cornell or anywhere else.  Cornell also confirmed that they have no record of Gooden ever attending or receiving a degree.  Although Marymount Manhattan College’s records confirmed Shanté enrolled, she apparently dropped out less than four months later.  Slate also asserts that Warner allegedly never had a contract with Shanté and evidence they’ve obtained shows they were not obligated to pay for her education.  Lastly, New York state records indicate that no one named Lolita Gooden or Roxanne Shanté is licensed to practice psychology or any related field.

So the 25 year old question still remains, WHO IS THE REAL ROXANNE?!

Let me first offer an apology to all of our readers.  I know although you don’t look to Highbrid Nation as your sole source of news you do expect that everything we publish outside of our op-ed and rumor columns to be based on factual information.  Please know that we in no way intentionally misled you in an attempt to sensationalize and or draw readership.  The story was strictly written based on information we believed to be fact from a traditionally reputable source in the the New York Daily News.

With that said, this revelations raises tremendous concerns.  For one, The New York Daily News is almost certain to offer a full retraction and no longer use the the services of freelance writer, Walter Dawkins who clearly didn’t fact check ANYTHING.  According to the paper’s website, the Shanté article is the only one he’s ever written for the paper and will most likely stay that way.  

But perhaps the most alarming concern is about “DOCTOR Shanté.”  If indeed these revelations are based in fact and again I have yet to do my own research, but I will, she is practicing under a false pretense and treating patients based on a degree she doesn’t own.  I mean does she have a bogus certificate on the wall?

My first question would of course be, If Shanté knew she was lying and flying under the radar since 2002 as a doc, then why expose yourself with the help of Dawkins and the Daily News.  Although Dawkins acted recklessly, he didn’t make the story up, she did and in turn probably ended his career in Journalism with it.

This is yet just another black eye for hip hop.  Here we were using Shanté as a poster girl for success, a feel good story about a culture that has so few.  In revealing it to be false, Shanté has done more harm to Hip Hop than she would have ever done to her if the story were true.  Its a shame that in a culture characterized by the motto “Keeping it real” we rarely find anyone who actually is.  I continue to be disappointed in our people.