Rap pioneer Roxanne Shante reveals her #MeToo moment

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At the age of 14, Lolita Gooden transformed into an overnight celebrity and became one of  hip hop’s first female rappers, Roxanne Shante.

Shante shot to fame in the mid-1980s when her hit record “Roxanne’s Revenge” flooded airwaves across the country with harsh lyrics and battle ready style. Today, Shante is regarded by many as a rap pioneer who opened the doors for artists like Nicki Minaj, Lil Kim, Foxxy Brown and Cardi B.

A new Netflix biopic, “Roxanne, Roxanne,” which debuted to rave reviews at Sundance last year, chronicles the tumultuous life of the female rapper while giving an ode to her lasting legacy.

Shante, now 48, recently spoke to the Huffington Post about her turbulent life experiences and how the door to the #MeToo movement has been cracked wide open for women in hip hop and beyond.

“I’ll be the first to tell you that hip-hop does have its flaws when it comes to the ways that women are treated, objectified or talked about,” she told HuffPo. “People feel that when a woman comes into the industry, it is no longer based on her talent.

Given her experiences growing up in the culture, Shante felt it was important to tell her story.

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“I think there’s a time and place for everything, and I think this is the perfect time for the movie,” she said. “It allows people to see that it’s not just a “Me Too moment” as far as Hollywood goes, with your biggest stars. People always assume that you have to reach a certain level of success to go through that, but I’m a person who experienced harassment from the very beginning of my career.”

“People say, ‘Roxanne, did you experience any Me Too instances?’ and I say, ‘Let me just explain one thing to you.’ At the age of 14, I made a record called “Roxanne, Roxanne,” also called “Roxanne’s Revenge.” And every man I met — whether they were age 8 or 80 — I was always approached with, “Roxanne, Roxanne, I wanna be your man.” So imagine having to deal with that on a day-to-day basis, hour after hour, with people constantly coming at you saying that.”

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The rapper also revealed how she internalized the constant harassment.

“When your management is telling you, “Smile! Smile! Don’t feel any type of way about that! This is what you have to do for the industry!” you feel, on the inside, that something is wrong with that. You’re not comfortable with it, but you still have to go along with it for career purposes, so I can definitely relate to what a lot of women today are going through and want to tell this story. This is great for women in hip-hop, too, because they need to be able to see the movie and relate to being put into the predicament I was put in.”