Roxanne Shanté issues classic non-apology apology for 'ruckus," 'angst'; not for false educational claims

Roxanne Shanté, the rapper whose false claims that Warner Music Group had paid for her to earn an undergraduate degree from Marymount Manhattan College and a Ph.D. in psychology from Cornell were debunked in this article I wrote for Slate, has issued a classic non-apology apology. Shanté tells the publication EurWeb that she "would like to apologize that this story regarding my post recording career has caused such a ruckus" and "apologize[s] to the people that truly care about me for any angst that this situation has caused." Notably, Shanté does not apologize for telling any falsehoods.

Shanté does promise that "the entire story will be revealed at a later time." And so we wait...

Roxanne Shanté set to appear on BET Tuesday; a few suggested questions for her interviewer

Roxanne Shanté, whose story of getting Warner Music to pay for her education, including a Ph.D. from Cornell, was debunked in Slate last week, is scheduled to appear on the BET program "106 & Park" Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. E.D.T. and P.D.T. My August 28 interviews with Shanté were brief (less than 30 minutes total), and there are many questions I did not have the chance to ask. Here are a few I would ask Shanté if I had the chance to interview her again. BET, these are yours for the asking:

• Ms. Shanté, you previously claimed to have earned a Ph.D. in psychology from Cornell. Yet you told Slate that you did not earn a Ph.D., but instead earned an M.A. Why did you falsely claim to have earned a Ph.D.?

• According to Cornell, you did not attend the university at all, let alone earn a degree. Do you have any proof that you attended and earned an M.A.? A copy of your diploma? A copy of your masters' thesis? Who were your professors? Any faculty members or fellow graduate students who would be willing to talk about your alleged attendance there? What years do you contend you attended and earned a degree?

• The web site for Cornell's psychology program says that it "does not have an M.A. program." How do you explain this, given your claim that you earned an M.A. there?

• You told Slate that you graduated from Marymount Manhattan College in 1995. However, according to Marymount Manhattan records, Lolita S. Gooden (your real name) attended "02/06/1995 to 05/23/1995" but left before ever earning a degree. (And Marymount Manhattan has no record of "Roxanne Shanté" ever attending.) A spokesman for the college confirmed to Slate, "She was only here for the three months in 1995. She did not graduate from Marymount Manhattan." Do you still maintain that you graduated from Marymount Manhattan?

• If you still maintain that you graduated from Marymount Manhattan, do you have any proof of that? A diploma, a transcript, or any other documents? Any faculty members, administrators, or classmates who can confirm your version of events?

• You gave Slate several explanations for the alleged failure of Marymount Manhattan records to accurately note your attendance and graduation, including a "Domestic Violence situation," use of an "alias," and a "computer error" stemming from "a mistake on an application [where you] put [your] old name." What other name or names did you use while attending Marymount Manhattan?

• Did you attend any colleges or universities other than Marymount Manhattan and Cornell?
  

• Numerous press accounts, as well as your speakers bureau's page advertising your services, describe you as a psychologist. Are you, in fact, a psychologist? Are you licensed to practice psychology (or any related field) in any jurisdiction? Do you see patients/clients for a fee? What is the address of your office?

• You say that you had a recording contract with Warner Music. Do you have a copy of that contract? Who were the Warner employees you dealt with?

• Did Warner Music (or any of its subsidiary labels) ever release any albums or singles by you? Which ones?

• In an interview for a 2004 documentary, you speak of receiving letters from Warner, inquiring about the progress of your education. Do you have copies of these letters?
  

• Did Warner Music ever pay you an advance or royalties? Do you have any record of such?

• What were the circumstances that led to the August 23 New York Daily News article? Do you know why the Daily News did the article at this time? Did you have any previous dealings with Walter Dawkins, the freelancer who wrote the article?

• Do you believe there is anything inaccurate in the Daily News article? How do you feel about the Daily News running an extensive correction that disputed many of your claims?
  

• You were quoted in the Daily News as saying, "Everybody was cheating with the contracts, stealing and telling lies." Who is the "everybody" that you were referring to? If any of your record labels were cheating you, did you ever take legal action? If not, why not?

• Lastly, do you have any documents at all to support your claims that: 1) you attended and received a degree from Cornell; 2) you graduated and received a degree from Marymount Manhattan College; 3) you had a contract with Warner Music that obligated Warner to pay for your education; and 4) you are a psychologist?

UPDATE: I TiVo'd the show and scanned through the entire two hours, which happened to be a special on the importance of education. No sign of Shanté.

Roxanne Shanté speaking about her 'Ph.D.'

The New York Daily News' August 23 story "Rapper behind 'Roxanne's Revenge' gets Warner Music to pay for Ph.D." was not the first place Roxanne Shanté claimed to have earned a doctorate from Cornell. Check out this short clip, which I believe is from the 2004 documentary Beef II, in which Shanté tells her story of signing with Warner Music and then getting Warner to pay for her Ph.D. from "Cornell Medical." "I socked it to them [Warner] for over $175,000 worth of education," Shanté says.



As you watch this, keep in mind that Shanté admitted to me in an August 28 interview that she did not earn a Ph.D. from Cornell, or anywhere else. Also, keep in mind that Warner says that neither it nor any of its subsidiary labels ever had a contract with Shanté, let alone one obligating the label to pay for her education. Also notable is that the "over $175,000" Shanté mentions in this clip became "$217,000" in the Daily News article (which the Daily News has now essentially disavowed).

Lastly, note that Shanté says in the video that she got her Ph.D. from "Cornell Medical." However, if one were to pursue a Ph.D. in psychology at Cornell, one would do so through the Department of Psychology, not the medical school. Shanté told me that she got her M.A. in psychology from Cornell. But Cornell told me (and others) that Shanté never attended or earned a degree.

Daily News issues stronger Roxanne Shanté correction in paper version

Someone who got today's paper version of the New York Daily News passed along a copy of the correction of its now-debunked story on Roxanne Shanté -- and it turns out the correction on paper was a bit stronger than the one the Daily News ran online.

For example, the web correction merely states, "there have been recent media reports that there never was an education clause in Shante's recording contract," without commenting one way or the other whether such "media reports" were true. The paper correction, however, says that Shanté's story of a clause in a contract with Warner Music Group obligating the company to pay for her education for life "has been called into serious doubt in recent media reports," adding that "a former lawyer for [Shanté's] label says he is 'confident' its contract contained no education clause." Just to reiterate: Warner told me on the record that it never had any contract with Shanté, let alone one obligating WMG to pay for her education.

NY Daily News issues correction to debunked Roxanne Shanté article

The New York Daily News has appended the following correction to its now-debunked story on rapper Roxanne Shanté:

Correction: It has come to the attention of the Daily News that a number of statements in this article written for the Daily News by a freelance reporter are, or may be, false. Cornell University has told us that Shante did not receive any degree from it under either her birth or stage name. We have confirmed that prior to the article, at least four publications on Cornell's own website reported that Shante had earned a Ph.D. from the university. Those references have now been removed. And in response to an inquiry today, Marymount College stated that Shante attended there for less than one semester.

Numerous e-mail and telephone inquiries by the freelance reporter to Marymount during the preparation of the article to confirm Shante's account were not responded to. Finally, there have been recent media reports that there never was an education clause in Shante's recording contract. When the reporter contacted Warner Brothers Records about the contract before the article, its only response was that it was having difficulty finding someone within the company who could "talk eloquently" about it.

My Slate piece: 'Roxanne's Nonexistent Revenge'

When I read this New York Daily News piece about 80s rapper Roxanne Shanté supposedly getting Warner Music to pay for her education for life (including a Ph.D. from Cornell), I knew something just didn't smell right. I've read enough entertainment industry contracts to know that companies simply don't enter into contracts like that.

So I started digging. Little did I realize what I would find:

• According to Warner, neither it nor any of its subsidiary record labels ever had a contract with Shanté, and it was not obligated to pay for her education. Indeed, there's no evidence that it ever did.
• Shanté—real name Lolita Shanté Gooden—doesn't have a Ph.D. from Cornell or anywhere else. Indeed, she admitted that to me in an interview. And Cornell has no record of Gooden (or "Shanté") ever attending or receiving a degree.
• According to Marymount Manhattan College records, Shanté enrolled there but dropped out less than four months later without ever earning a degree.
• New York state records indicate that no one named Lolita Gooden or Roxanne Shanté is licensed to practice psychology or any related field.

Read my piece in Slate for the whole story.

UPDATE: Shanté told the following to Lemondrop.com:

I'm just gonna let it go...What he's trying to do is trying to get himself known, to get the popular sites to read after him. This is not a $5 billion Ponzi scheme. What would make someone go so hard and heavy at that?

In other words, she does not dispute anything in the Slate piece.