PhotoIn 1984, Lolita Shante Gooden, a 14-year-old from Queens, was on her way to do laundry when she became a hip-hop star. A producer stopped her and asked if she would rap over some beats from “Roxanne Roxanne,” a hit by UTFO about a girl who wouldn’t respond to a guy’s advances. Her song, “Roxanne’s Revenge,” became a hit, and Lolita transformed into Roxanne Shante, one of the first female hip-hop stars. And yet what distinguishes “Roxanne Roxanne,” a sensitively observed new movie with a dynamite performance by Chanté Adams, is that it marries a traditional hip-hop biopic, a form long dominated by male rappers, with a more idiosyncratic and deeply felt slice of life. PhotoThis movie’s intimate indie vibe is a nice match for the old-school subject, rap stardom in the days before hip-hop culture went global.

Source: New York Times March 22, 2018 10:52 UTC