Roxanne Shante Issues Public Apology for Fabricated Tale

In early September, the New York Post ran a feature on 80s rapper Roxanne Shante exploring her career path post hip-hop. Shante gave the paper a detailed explanation about her struggle with Warner Music to have the label fund her college education – something she claims they agreed to do in her original contract. Shante also claimed that she eventually managed to persuade the record label to cough up the cash for both her undergraduate degree at Marymount Manhattan College as well as her Ph.D in psychology at Cornell University.

The story made the Internet rounds and struck a positive chord in the hip-hop community but after a little investigation, a writer at Slate.com exposed her entire story as a lie. There was immediate backlash against Slate for trying to muddy a positive story, but it was eventually revealed that the story was, in fact, fabricated. In response to the accusations that her tale was false, Shante said she couldn't understand why anyone would challenge her story and decided that she would "let it go." Now, fast forward more than a month and Shante has finally stepped forward to issue a public apology for her fairy tale story.

"Throughout my career and life, I have been faced with many challenges, both professionally and personally. Like all of you, I am human, and may have not made the correct decision all the time," she said. "And, like anyone else, I would like to think that my entire life or career is not judged by one error or mistake."

Despite her apology, Shante went on to say that she was still not ready to give a full explanation for the story. "I would like to thank my long time fans and supporters for your continued support. I am humbled and grateful to all of you for that," she said. "Without going into all of the details as of right now, I would like to apologize that this story regarding my post recording career has caused such a ruckus. The entire story will be revealed at a later time."