Roxanne Shante Story Uncovered As Hoax: No Ph. D and Warner Cash

by peder.sande | September 3, 2009 at 11:42 am

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Roxanne Shante's Cinderella hip-hop story was reported earlier this summer by Walter Dawkins for NYDailyNews. In the article, Roxanne Shante tells a story of her rise to an Ivy League education from her humble hip-hop beginnings. Roxanne Shante claims the $217, 000 tuition for her Ph. D in psychology at Cornell was then paid for by Waner Music. She cites an open ended clause in the contract specifying Warner's obligation to pay for all of her education and a subsequent fight for the money. The story rounds out with Roxanne Shante administrating a hip-hop therapy group, which provides outlets for African American youths dealing with mental issues.

"This is a story that needs to be told," Shante said. "I'm an example that you can be a teenage mom, come from the projects, and be raised by a single parent, and you can still come out of it a doctor."

This story is an inspiring story, however it is almost entirely fabricated. Slate.com dug deeper and found these important facts:

Roxanne Shante does not have a Ph. D from Cornell.
She does not hold a bachelors degree from Marymount Manhattan College
There was never a clause to pay for her education (she never had a contract with Warner)

Roxanne Shante has admitted to Slate that she did not finish her Ph. D at Cornell, but continues to affirm that she finished an M.A. in psychology. This seems highly impossible if she did not receive a bachelors degree from the institution she acknowledged in the story, Marymount Manhattan College.

Roxanne Shante has not responded to Slate's request for a copy of her M.A. diploma.

In a subsequent e-mail, Shanté wrote, "I also attended College under an alias, because of a Domestic Violence situation" and speculated that she "made a mistake on an application and put my old name so maybe that's the reason for the computer error?" But she was unable to substantiate such claims.

The story of Roxanne Shante seems to paint the rapper as a sad ex-childhood star looking for attention. Roxanne Shante has not made a statement on the real reasons for the lies. Post in the comments if you think you know why Roxanne would lie about her education.

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