Well, look what's finally arrived. I saw Roxanne Roxanne at Sundance last year, expecting a hard-hitting tale about one of the fiercest female rappers alive, Roxanne Shante. While I praised the performance by breakout star and festival award winner Chante Adams, the results of the movie left me underwhelmed because of what it didn't cover about her life and career.
Now more than a year later we are finally getting the hip-hop biopic's first trailer. Adams stars as Roxanne Shante, the Queens MC who took the rap world by storm when she appeared on UTFO's hit track, "Roxanne's Revenge". But success wasn't enough to completely pull her free from the drugs and the crime that ruled the streets. Nia Long, Mahershala Ali, Elvis Nolasco, Kevin Phillips, Shenell Edmonds, and Adam Horovitz co-star. Here's the synopsis:
Life is a battle.
In the early 1980s, the most feared battle MC in Queens, New York, was a fierce teenage girl with the weight of the world on her shoulders. At the age of 14, Lolita “Roxanne Shante” Gooden was well on her way to becoming a Hip-Hop legend as she hustled to provide for her family while defending herself from the dangers of the streets.
Directed by Michael Larnell with beats by the RZA, Roxanne Roxanne hits Netflix on March 23rd.
