Roxanne Shante Exposed, Never Received Ph. D.

It's been the feel good story of the last year: old school rapper Roxanne Shante got revenge, again. Shante connected with Marley Marl back in the 80's and released 'Roxanne's Revenge,' a dis track about UTFO's classic cut, 'Roxanne, Roxanne.' She had a string of singles and two records but her rap career faded like so many other's from that era did. But the story floating around many spots -- including a recent profile from the New York Daily News details how her life after rap has been quite rewarding.

At age 19 she recalled a kooky clause in her contract that supposedly claimed Warner Music would fund her education for life, telling the Daily News that Warner "kept stumbling over their words, and they didn't have an exact reason why they were telling me no." Eventually, she says they coughed up all the money all the way to her Ph.D. from Cornell; after graduating she became a successful therapist.

After doing some lengthy homework, Slate says this isn't true. Any of it. The first major hole uncovered, which indeed would be a pretty big deal: Warner was never contractually tied to Shante. Nor was Cornell ever her educational institution, though in this follow up article she claims to still have received a Masters from the famed Ivy league school. Slate's research is saying otherwise, arguing that even her undergrad institution, Marymount Manhattan, never graduated her. Sigh.

Shante also (we think) started Hip Hop Ices in Queens and hopefully can/will fall back on that quietly. The Slate article hasn't confirmed or denied any fraudulent waffle cone recipes so far. And while this leaves a bad taste in our mouth as summer slips away, the 'Roxanne' does sound good: rocky road with chocolate topping.