antics in the song. But none of us was expecting what would come next.
             I was straightening up my room the first time I heard "Roxanne's Revenge" in 1984. All of a sudden this girl Roxanne Shanté came on the radio straight dissing some cats who had a hit record. I just stood there, staring at my little silver one-speaker boombox, frozen from shock. Somehow I managed to pop in a cassette and record it. I couldn't believe someone who sounded like a teenager in my class had the nerve to make an answer to "Roxanne, Roxanne". And I couldn't believe she was cursing so much that the DJ had to keep bleeping out the words.
             By morning, I had the song memorized...Almost every other girl at school caught the record that night, too, and we were all excited because it was so different. "Roxanne's Revenge" was a monumental moment in hip hop, marking a new level of commercial success and street credibility for the female MC..."
             Valdés goes on to explain that Shanté was so revolutionary because she was the first "hip hop diva". There were many female rappers before her (the first female to rap was Millie Jackson in 1974, on her Grammy nominated track "Caught Up) but none had this same impact on society. No hip-hop fan could deny the brilliance of Shanté; her "stank black girl attitude" and her skills she backed this attitude up with created a whole new breed of hip-hop. (Valdés, Forward)
             Although Shanté might not have been anyone's idea of a role model, she still paved the way for superstars like Salt-N-Pepa and Lil' Kim and even positive rappers like Queen Latifa and Lauryn Hill. All of these women have a different kind of appeal from pop stars like Britney Spears or Janet Jackson-their genre was born in basement studios and spawn from a struggle. Although they assume the power and flavor of such pop s...