Dr. Roxanne Shante Condemns Warner Music

[jayanthi mandhalapu]

American hip-hop pioneer, Dr. Roxanne Shante has lashed out at her former music bosses insisting that they tried to back off an agreement to finance her college education.

Roxanne's Revenge singer quit Warner Music at the age of 19 to pursue her education with a clause in her contract that the company will fund her education for life.

The former rapper now has an undergraduate degree from Marymount Manhattan College and a PhD in psychology she earned in 2001 from New York's prestigious Cornell University, which cost the label $217,000 (£144,670).

Dr. Roxanne Shante said, "This is a story that needs to be told. 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. Everybody was cheating with the contracts, stealing and telling lies. And to find out that I was just a commodity was heartbreaking. They kept stumbling over their words, and they didn't have an exact reason why they were telling me no".

The 38 year old has launched her own therapy practice, and offers $5,000 (£3,330) college scholarships each semester to female rappers through the non-profit Hip Hop Association.

"People put such a taboo on therapy, they feel it means they're going crazy. No, it doesn't. It just means you need someone else to talk to. They can't really let loose and enjoy life. So I just let them unlock those doors", Dr. Roxanne Shante added.