AAMBC Creative Icon: Roxanne Shanté on Growing up Hip Hop and Helping Today’s Youth.

The AAMBC Awards are set to honor the first female MC on the Hip-Hop scene, Roxanne Shanté. Shanté became a household name at 14 with “Roxanne’s Revenge.” The song was a crafty response to Brooklyn group U.T.F.O.’s 1985 single “Roxanne Roxanne,” a song about a man who is hitting on an uninterested woman. Those lyrics played into her real life as Shanté was touring and dealing with the unwanted attention of grown men.

Rap music sky-rocketed Roxanne Shante from foster care and the streets of New York to a successful career in the music industry. Her talent led her to battling rappers and raking in money on world tours. Her legacy is documented in Netflix’s new film, Roxanne Roxanne. The movie covers her meteoric rise to fame. It also shows how she coped with domestic violence and became a mother when she was barely through puberty.

Despite these challenges, Roxanne Shanté became a lyrical legend. If it wasn’t for this creative icon, artists like Queen Latifah and Nikki Minaj may not exist. Here, J.D. Myall talks to Roxanne Shanté about being honored, the making of Roxanne Roxanne, and how her past has driven her to help at risk youth.

The AAMBC Awards was started to honor black writers and creatives. Why do you think platforms like this are needed?

We don’t get acknowledged. If you’re not in front of the camera and you are a well-read black girl, it doesn’t always make you a popular one. It is important that we acknowledge each other and celebrate our creativity. I hope platforms like this stay around forever.

You are going to receive the Creative Icon Award from the AAMBC Awards. What does it feel like to be honored?

I don’t want to say it’s an honor to be honored, but it is. Especially, since, sometimes you’re not acknowledged for the things that you do. People think it’s all about hip hop. There is so much more to it… like lyrics, writing songs, and the things I do with my nonprofit program, Mind over Matter.

Can you tell me about your Program?

Sure. Mind over Matter is a non-profit program started by myself and my husband over 10 years ago. We actually go into high schools and talk to at risk kids. We follow girls from the ninth grade all the way up until graduation. To date we are responsible for 544 graduates. Not only are we involved with them educationally… but we are involved with them personally. I have become a court appointed special advocate for my girls who are in foster care. I go and speak for them in court. I become their voice for them. We are trying to prepare them for life. With my girls in foster care, we are their first interaction with someone who genuinely cares. Someone who isn’t financially benefiting from them.

What made this a passion project for you?

Me and my sisters were in foster care when we were younger and we didn’t have a voice. No one spoke up for us. So I automatically knew I had to be that voice for someone else. It’s therapeutic for me. Me and my husband pay for everything ourselves. So, it’s healing but it hurts at the same time, because I wish I could do more. It can be sad and very challenging. When these girls come to me, sometimes a lot of damage is done. It takes a lot to try to fix years and years of abuse and neglect. There are so many Roxannes out there. So many girls who are in the system and feeling like they have no voice.

How long were you in foster care? That wasn’t covered in your biopic (Roxane Roxane).

A few years. We didn’t put everything in the movie. We skipped some of my life. You see me return but there was a whole lot more to the story than that. It was up to my sisters to share that part of their lives. I am just thankful for what I was able to put in the movie. Some dramas and documentaries add stuff that isn’t real but with my movie we left it organic. Everything you see happened. I think everything that needed to be told in Roxanne Roxanne was told… but there will be a continuation.

You were very young when you started out in Hip Hop and a lot of time you were traveling and performing alone. Were you ever afraid?

I think everything has a fear factor, but when something is your calling…. you do what you do.

You’re an icon and a role model for a lot of young women in Hip Hop. Does that make you feel any pressure or responsibility?

Yes. I have to be mindful and be cautious as to what I say and do. I also have to be very real and speak on things that might be hard.

You have spoken about the “Me Too” movement and you have said that you dealt with sexual harassment. Was that during your career or in your personal life? How did you cope with it?

It was in all areas. I worked in an environment with drugs and alcohol everywhere. Grown men would approach me saying, “Roxanne Roxanne, I wanna be your man.” If they thought it was a possibility… they would keep at it. I was told to smile and ignore it at 15 years old.

When you’re young and coming out of foster care situations, people know you don’t have parents involved. People treat you as a commodity. That is all they see you as. I was blessed. I wasn’t one of those girls that feel like they have to give their body to people to get opportunities. I’ve been a mom as long as I can remember, from taking care of my sisters to having my son. I think the fact that I had to take care of them made me stronger in those situations. It also gave me love for those that don’t have much.

I go into the trenches. I feed the hungry and I go where people won’t travel. These are our people and our children, our future. If you don’t contribute we are left with nothing. I live in a red zone and people ask me why I don’t move out. Everyone gets money and moves out. Who do the kids have left to look up to then? I stay so the kids can see something positive is possible. They see me and they know the drug dealer is not the only one with a car, but he’s the only one with a car note. I put money back in the hood. I teach young girls if you date a hustler and they die in the street… your child gets nothing but pictures of him with chains on. They don’t even get the gold chain. I talk to them about getting good credit so when a man says, “Hey baby, what’s your number?” “They can say 800.” You have no reason to talk if he doesn’t know how valuable that number is. I make it my mission to make a change. I live in Brick City and I’m making a change one brick at a time.

What do you think people can learn from your life?

I would like them to learn that it’s not easy. People will try to take advantage and take whatever they can. You have to stay true to yourself. If you’re true to yourself, even if you walk away with nothing… you have everything.

Thanks, Shanté. Your talent, your heart and your authenticity make you an icon.

Check out “Roxanne Roxanne” on Netflix & Click here to get tickets to see Roxanne Shanté at the 2018 AAMBC Awards on June 9, 2018