Roxanne Wars

So we just covered a little about Lolita Gooden, aka Roxanne Shanté, and her first single - her response to UTFO (UnTouchable Force Organization)'s song "Roxanne, Roxanne."  Her response sparked what would be known as "The Roxanne Wars."

Most infamously, Roxanne Shanté and The Real Roxanne (Adelaida Martinez) recorded answer songs in response to UFTO's song.  In Roxanne Shanté's version, she takes on the role of 'Roxanne' in her response song.  Shanté and Marley Marl also utilized the original beats of the instrumental version of "Roxanne, Roxanne."  Combined with Shanté's distinctive rap style, controversy ensued and as a result, Shanté rerecorded a version of "cleaner" nature.  Despite this, the original version sold over 250,000 copies in the New York area alone.  

The Real Roxanne, on the other hand, paved a new way in music, much like how Marley Marl introduced sampling to hip hop.  Previously, answer songs were limited to one response to an original recording.  In the case of The Roxanne Wars, however, responses didn't end at Shanté's recording; The Real Roxanne released a third, unprecedented response to UTFO's recording.  

Other recordings followed this third recording within the year, with anywhere between 30 and 100 recordings produced, with various people in Roxanne's life rapping in them.  Shortly after the hype died down, an offshoot of The Roxanne Wars came about - called the Roxanne acts.  The acts were a series of songs following the UTFO release "Roxanne, Roxanne, Part 2: Calling Her a Crab" including responses by Shanté and Sparky D.

The most prevalent war that followed The Roxanne Wars were The Bridge Wars, loosely involving Roxanne Shanté and the Juice Crew (Marley Marl's group) and KRS-One.  More to come on that.

Information pulled from wikipedia primarily.