Roxanne Shante Files Lawsuit Against Janet Jackson
By Nolan Strong
Date: 10/18/2004 6:14 pm

Legendary Hip-Hop pioneer Roxanne Shante has filed a lawsuit against Janet Jackson, after the singer used a clip of Shante’s voice and failed to pay.

The song “Like You Don't Love Me,” #13 on Janet’s album Damita Jo, contains a sampled clip of Shante’s voice saying “so fresh,” familiar words to those who listen to the genre of music.

“I figured maybe it was a sheer oversight that they didn’t pay the invoice for using my voice on the record,” Shante told AllHipHop.com. “Maybe she over looked it with the breast popping out (the infamous 2004 Superbowl incident), she just got caught up in the mix. I fell back, like when they get around to it, they get around to it.”

Damita Jo debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top 200 Pop Charts, moving an impressive 381,000 copies and taking second place to Usher’s blockbuster, Confessions.

Shante said she only contemplated the lawsuit after a representative for Jackson called her and said it wasn’t her voice that was sampled.

“That really infuriated me," Shante continued. "Any true Hip-Hop head knows it’s me. The sample comes from [the song] ‘Def Fresh Crew,’ a song that I did with Biz Markie on the Pop Art label.”

Shante, who has owned the masters to her own recordings for over nine years, said this is not the first time she has dealt with the sample clearance issue.

The words have been used in countless Hip-Hop songs and have appeared on popular break beat vinyl compilations.

Most people assume the words come from Biz Markie’s “Nobody Beats the Biz,” which also sampled the words from the original record.

“It usually doesn’t go this far, they rectify it. She could pay me with she what would buy her bag, it’s the principle.”

Tangles over samples are as close as Shante is coming to the Hip-Hop industry these days. She has a thriving psychology practice in Manhattan, New York and is busy raising her 18-year-old son.

“Life after Hip-Hop for me has been better than it’s ever been. I am not after the money," Shante clarified. "But how can you come at me and say that’s not my voice? The sheer humiliation and aggravation has made it go this far.”

http://www.allhiphop.com/...s/?ID=3624
[Edited 10/20/04 22:41pm]

Another reason to stop using samples

DavidEye said:

actually I take a good sample over some boring "selfmade" computerbeat any day

i thought she thought that janet was tryin to proclaim herself as The Real Roxanne or sumfin...

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Hold up!!! I know I didn't hear my name up in this piece!!!

OdysseyMiles said:

JANFAN4L said:

Yup. I pointed out the sample on my thread about the production of Damita Jo. It is unmistakeably Shante's voice.

A few months before Janet's song came out I also used that same exact phrase on my beat "This Stuff Is So Fresh" (without payin' of course ).

See this is why Samples scare the hell out of me
Its Just two words but
sheet , you'll have to shell out 2 mil for those 2 words


I'd rather just record myself say so fresh in a similar fashion lol

Dancelot said:

I call them "Casio beats."

didn't this happen before with janet...involving sly and the family stone?

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Wrong Roxanne. That's the Real Roxanne. Roxanne Shante is dark-skinned.

I just made a comment about Janet on another tread and I forgot to add that also. Not only work on your voice, but work on being original again. I didn't expect Janet to sample as much as she does. That right there shows signs of running out of career ideas.

TurnItUp said:

Chill out, it's 2 words. "So fresh"

CinisterCee said:

What he said.

VoicesCarry said:

I wasn't just talkin' about the words "so fresh" sampled from Roxanne Chante, I'm talkin' about these songs as well:

All For You--sample of "The Glow of Love" by Luther Vandross or Change
Son of a Gun--sample of "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon
Got till it's Gone--sample of "Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell
We go deep--is a sample from a song from One Way, not sure, but it's a sample
One of the songs on Damita Jo--a sample of I'm in Love by Evelyn Champagne King

I'm sure there is others I'm leaving out. She's done more sampling than those two words "so fresh". We already got enough crappy artist out here who could come up with a tune of their own if their life depended it on it.

Good thing their lives don't, because if it did. They'd be dead as a doornail.

FUCK THAT SHIT.... PAY ROXANNE SHANTE!!!!!


JANET DID GO JACKIN FOR BEATS FROM THE REAL ROXANNE TOO.....

REMEMBER "IF" WAS LOOPED OUT OF THE REAL ROXANNE'S "BANG ZOOM LET'S GO"

TurnItUp said:

actually, the carly simon vocals are not samples but a re-interpeting by ms. simon herself.....i wish the video was of the album version and actually have featured carly in it...cause carly broke it down in that song.....missy ruined the shit out of it.

just pay her...damn....

Nice she owns her own masters. Now if everyone else would just start doing this the world wouldn't have so many damned poors failed musicians appearing on reality tv to make a quick buck!

I think it's cool she owns her masters considering she had Big Daddy Kane and Craig G. ghost write most of her shit, fuck it I guess it is her voice.....pay up Miss Jackson if your nasty!!!!!

boriquateddy said:

Amen to that. Ain't that the truth.

TurnItUp said:

That's one of the main problems with today's R&B music.ALOT of it is based on samples.It's artistic laziness,as far as I'm concerned.

boriquateddy said:

loooool so true, kool g rap wrote some too


[Edited 10/20/04 8:40am]

CinisterCee said:

man the entire Juice crew ghost wrote her shit.. lol

TheRealFiness said:

Except the song that put her on the map "Roxanne's Revenge" I heard was an off-the-dome freestyle..

What about "Runaway"? Sounds like something Shante wrote.

CinisterCee said:

revenge was off tha dome,marley had an acetate of it and world premiered it.. and made a master reel from the wbls broadcast.. so thats where u hear him say "Oh my Gooodness" so its actually from a WBLS broadcast.

TheRealFiness said:

haha! crazy info there

Finess u get props

CinisterCee said:

'preciate it son

nonetheless it's still her voice imortalized on record,I think Biz goes hard on the "Def fresh crew" record....

sosgemini said:

Now I liked Son of a Gun. I will say there are a few samples I like, but on a whole I am getting tired of these artist not being able to come up with an original beat. When it gets to the point where you are sampling off of a show tune or a (jesus christ) a video game:

I'm talking about Lil' Flip--Game Over. One evening when I was at work, I only heard this song one time and maybe that's all I needed to hear, somebody sampled the theme song to the show "Gimme A Break". I just would like real music to come back, you know grown folks music.

TurnItUp said:

somebody sampled Give Me A Break?

thank god i stopped listening to the radio...