Search - Roxanne Shanté :: Best of Cold Chillin

Roxanne Shante Best Of Cold Chillen

Benjamin P. Li'gon | Manhattan, NY USA | 03/24/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The cd is hot Roxanne Shante was by far the hottest female mc back in the day. I think the cd is missing a few tracks like Loosey's Rap, Roxanne Revenge the Street version and this free style they use to play on wbls called Wash Ya Body. It was like an answer record to Doug's fresh La Di Da Di the cut was tight. I think who ever buys this will understand waht old school was all about hot lyrcs."

The Bitch Is Out The Box

Paul Ess. | Holywell, N.Wales,UK. | 08/13/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Explicit lyrics!? They ain't kiddin'. The 'Parental Advisory' legend affixed to Roxanne Shante's cd cover isn't there for decoration; she's gleefully obscene, antagonistically disgusting and -- I'm sorry, but it must be said -- downright rude.

In her element screeching raunchy insults and clarion-call challenges to love rivals and rival rappers alike - the girl's got issues. She doesn't do 'chillin' of any description and woe betide anyone caught in her cross-hairs.

She makes Lily Allen look like Esme Cannon (!)



Anyway, 'Cold Chillin' is a compilation of driven missives, thrashed mercilessly at their various targets. Shante's got lots of evil enemies - good job really - because where all this anger would go without them, is a worry. She's honest enough to drive it through her music thankfully, and rather than a wagon-load of whining, we get a kind of focussed, combative positivism - delivered only semi-serious 'street'.

(This means uninformed, unfamiliar herberts like me can can have a crack at her and her art; like most 'rock' fans I find hip-hop/rap/r'n'b one-dimensional, inaccessible and more than a little hostile, and it is a major plus that waspish Shante shimmies the veil just a touch, and allows us a shrew peek at the bling-and-boom maelstrom beyond)



Some of the beat-box stuff (ie people making noises with their mouths because they can't play a musical instrument) is pretty naff, but when she finds some soul in among the rhythms - she buzzes.

I've always adored 'Have a Nice Day', 'Straight Razor' is as coarse as a docker's dacks, but absolutely magnificent, and 'Feelin' Kinda Horny' beautifully (!) combines her three main interests - sex, swearing and revenge, in a pretty pop song NEVER destined for the cowering Hit-Parade.



'Cold Chillin' has major flaws: as a music, a philosophy and a culture. Shante, by the sheer joy of existing however (I rap, therefore..I am!), manages to absolve herself and her sex, while simultaneously racking the lewd hilarity factor up to an inflamed ten.

It's obvious that the M. Jackson she's name-checking is Millie - not Michael...



And as for RS - I've no idea what became of her (I don't research these things much, I just listen to the music) but I'll hazard a guess: she hooked up with some fly stud who took her home, calmed her the f*** down, and pumped a 'hood load of kids out of her.

Close?

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be...



For Lou."