The legendary female hip hop rapper, Dr. Roxanne Shante, turned her humble beginnings into inspiration for young mothers wanting to better their lives. Coming to the scene in the 80’s, 14 year old Roxanne Shante scored a smash hit with her lyrical rebuttle -“Roxanne’s Revenge” – to UTFO’s song “Roxanne, Roxanne.” But as most artists come to realize, this business is a dirty game and Shante quickly realized it and decided to leave the game just after releasing two albums.

With a young child of her own, 19 year old Shante decided on a plan B, which was to go to college to become a doctor. Knowing that tuition would be expensive, a little clause in her old record contract with Warner Music inevitably became the financial backing that she needed to make her dream come true.

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.


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