Roxanne Shanté, the proud Queen Bridges native partnered with Fat Beats’ new YouTube series, A Breukelen Story, to share tales of her journey from an adolescence to Roxanne Roxanne. Along her journey, the diss track originator touched on how she learned to embrace being from the Hegeman Group Home For Girls after being placed there for boosting and fighting.
“I remember my first day walking in there and I was like, where is this? Because we’re going down Linden Boulevard. As far as I was concerned, Linden Boulevard was still Queens [NY]. I was now in Brooklyn…I just felt like everybody’s from Brooklyn, and now I need to be from Brooklyn. So where am I going to say I’m from?”
Shanté tried to say she was from Coney Island and avoid questions, but the other girls could tell she was pretending. During her time in the group home, she ran into Fat Boy affiliate Prince Markie Dee. Although they never spoke the first time, the two did exchange memorable glances. Years later, the two would run into each other at a rap show.
“I know you, you from the group home,” he said.
Worried that she would be outed to her fans and peers as a girl from a group home, the Bad Sister MC confidently graced the stage and boldly spit, “I’m up here on the mic and I do it all alone/ and I don’t give a f**k cause I’m from the group home.”
Met with the crowd’s approving cheers, Shanté realized being from a group home is not a bad thing. Watch Roxanne Shanté’s tell her Breukelen Story above and Sadat X tell his below.