Roxanne says how being a rapper at the time was not beneficial for her monetarily. “Not only was I already a parent, already had my son, but I was responsible for my sister. So, being responsible for my family members, I needed things that were financially lucrative for me, and at that time it wasn’t. I was a battle rapper. I had no intention of making records.”

She continues, “It just so happens Marley Marl, who happened to be one of the greatest Hip Hop producers, lived across the street right above the laundry mat, and I was going to do laundry and he was like, ‘Listen, come and do a freestyle for me.’ And that’s how this came about. There was no demo. There was no looking around for record companies. Everything literally came to me — the same way how the movie came. It’s just about the things that take place in the universe.”

Her biopic, Roxanne Roxanne, is now available on Netflix and is produced by Forest Whitaker and Pharrell Williams.