Editor’s note: the story below has since been revealed as factually incorrect. Roxanne Shante has allegedly been misrepresenting huge chunks of her music industry and educational history. See comments below for details.
This post really warmed my heart.
Roxanne Shante – a teen rapper in the 1980s – had a contract with Warner Music. It included a clause that the company would pay for Shante’s education for the rest of her life.
She made them pay up. Including for her PhD.
That’s pretty fucking awesome.
h/t PostBourgie (the same link as above); see also the cross-post of the PostBourgie post at Bitch Ph.D. and the NY Daily article they both link to.
Categories: education, social justice
I heard about this earlier today. A much needed lift for me. Well done, Dr Shante.
Yeah, I just can’t get over how awesome this is 🙂
Something I probably should have said in the post, too, was that it seems to me that there is a SECOND Hoyden in this story. From the NY Daily article linked in the post:
I noticed that when I was reading the story, Jo. Dean Grecco certainly deserves credit for supporting Shante’s education so relentlessly.
Oops.
Looks like I wuz had:
http://postbourgie.com/2009/09/02/if-it-sounds-too-good-to-be-true/
http://www.slate.com/id/2227090/
Oh well. Nice story, anyway.
I just heard that. *sigh*
Thanks, Jo. I’ll add an editorial note to the post.
I’m astonished that she thought she could get away with such a story in the internet age. She must have known that someone would chase it up eventually.