Roxanne's Real Revenge

This is a great story about beating the odds courtesy of a contract's fine print.

From the NY Daily News...

"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."

Her prognosis wasn't as bright in the years after the '80s icon scored a smash hit at age 14: "Roxanne's Revenge," a response to rap group UTFO's mega-hit "Roxanne, Roxanne", making Shante hip hop's first female celebrity.

After two albums, Shante said, she was disillusioned by the sleazy music industry and swindled by her record company. The teen mother 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.