And I'm about sick of that 'Monie-in-the-middle'-shit
Your album cold garbage
Had one good jam, now you think you a star, bitch Roxanne Shanté – Big Mama
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One of the most popular songs on Monie’s 1990 debut album Down to Earth was “Monie in the Middle”, a Grammy-nominated smash. Shante argues that it was the only good song on the album, though she pointedly ignores the album’s other huge hits, “Down 2 Earth” and the album’s second Grammy-nominated tune, “It’s a Shame (My Sister)”
Try to get flipped, I'mma rip you and your girl Monie Roxanne Shanté – Big Mama
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Shante now changes her target to Simone “Monie Love” Riscoe, a British emcee whose first notice in the U.S. came from her appearance on Latifahs “Ladies First.”
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Shante takes another dig at Latifah, punning on the Queen’s hit song “Ladies First.” The song featured Monie Love, who is also dissed below.
Latifah would respond to these provocations in her song “I Can’t Understand.”
You roll up, and I'mma smoke that ass like reefer
Cause you ain't never in life been a star to me
Sold the fuck out trying to go R&B Roxanne Shanté – Big Mama
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Oh no she di'nt! Shante goes after Dana “Queen Latifah” Owens. Latifah’s then-new second album, Nature of a Sistah, really was more r&b sounding than her first LP. It contained New Jack Swing and dancehall-style songs and was not nearly as successful as her more straight up hip-hop debut, All Hail the Queen
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Shanté was not the first successful female rapper — that honor arguably belongs to MC Sha-Rock of the Funky Four Plus One
— but she was certainly one of its progenitors, and has been around for longer than any of the women addressed in this song.
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The hip-hop classic “Roxanne, Roxanne” by UTFO sparked a very large series of answer records, some well known and some less so, that collectively became known as the Roxanne Wars.
Shanté’s song Roxanne’s Revenge was the first and most famous of the responses. Like a later rapper, The Real Roxanne, she took the perspective of Roxanne. The two of them went back and forth a few times during the Wars, which is what the first half of this line refers to.
As for the second half, that is about another of the answer songs, “Sparky’s Turn (Roxanne, You’re Through)” by Sparky D. Shanté returned fire at both ladies on the song “Queen of Rox”, and she and Sparky D had a one-on-one battle on “Round 1 – Roxanne Shanté Vs. Sparky Dee”.
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Roxanne entered rap as a member of the Juice Crew, the Marley Marl-founded rap collective that included Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, Craig G, Kool G Rap, MC Shan, and others.
She’s reminding listeners of her heavy cred.
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Shante’s debut song, “Roxanne’s Revenge,” was released in 1984, when she was just fourteen. It was a smash hit, selling a quarter million copies in NYC alone.
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What is this?
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