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Roxanne Shante Earns PhD, Funded By Old Record Label

Check out this incredible story via Black Voices’ Carmen Dixon:

I don’t know about you, but I get tired of hearing one rap hit after another glorifying conflict between two poor people, from the same poor neighborhood, inflicting physical violence on each other in the name of “respect.” In reality, achievement, service to others and living honorably is what earns respect. The first female celebrity of rap, Roxanne Shante, lives this. She earned her PhD from Cornell University and made sure Warner Brothers Music paid for every penny of her education. But it wasn’t easy:

The teen mother, living in the Queensbridge Houses, recalled how her life was shattered. “Everybody was cheating with the contracts, stealing and telling lies,” she said. “And to find out that I was just a commodity was heartbreaking.” But Shante, then 19, remembered a clause in her Warner Music recording contract: 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. Source: Rapper behind ‘Roxanne’s Revenge’ gets Warner Music to pay for Ph.D – NY Daily News

Making a corporate behemoth do what they say they are going to do? Now, that’s gangster. Today, Dr. Shante focuses her talent and skill as a psychologist, on helping inner-city black folks.

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