Thursday’s Throwback: Roxanne, Roxanne

For today’s Thursday Throwback, we’re going waaaaaaayyyyyy back. 24 years to be exact… 1984. This was the year that I was introduced to hip hop and the song that got me hooked was UTFO’s “Roxanne Roxanne”. I was only 10 years old, but something about the simplistic beat and nursery rhyme-like lyrics captivated me. 24 years later, I’m still hooked.

UTFO was not as widely known as Kurtis Blow or Whodini, but it was this song that made them famous. Produced by the R&B group Full Force, who had fame with Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, “Roxanne, Roxanne” was actually a B-Side to the single “Hanging Out.” Obviously it was “Roxanne, Roxanne” that caught on. And boy did it ever catch on! This track is known as being the first record to start the “answer record” craze. In 1984 and 1985, everyone was coming out with a Roxanne record. You had “Roxanne’s Revenge”, “Roxanne’s Doctor”, “The Parents of Roxanne, and even “Roxanne’s A Man.” UTFO even released their own answer record to all these others with “The Real Roxanne”. Check out Wikipedia for the full story on the Roxanne Wars. Sadly, I do not have all of these answer records for you all to check out. I remember back in the day creating my own mixtape called “Roxanne’s Diary” with all the answer records taped off the radio (that’s how we did it back then).

Anyway, check out the video and and song below, along with the first and most popular answer record, “Roxanne’s Revenge” by Roxanne Shante.

UTFO: “Roxanne, Roxanne”

Roxanne Shante: “Roxanne’s Revenge”

Check it over at The Real Ish

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