Sparky D

A key player in hip-hop’s golden age feud “The Roxanne Wars”, rapper Sparky D came on the scene in 1985 with the track “Sparky's Turn (Roxanne You're Through).” The track criticized rapper Roxanne Shanté and her track, “Roxanne’s Revenge,” which was an “answer song” itself, one released in reply to the UTFO song “Roxanne, Roxanne.” On “Sparky’s Turn,” D defended U.T.F.O., but the group failed to acknowledge the track, seeing it as an open door for more — and lesser — artists to get a piece of the “Roxanne” craze that was sweeping hip-hop. They were right, as Dr. Freshh (“Roxanne's Doctor: The Real Man”), Gigolo Tony & Lacey Lace (“The Parents of Roxanne”), Ralph Rolle (“Roxanne's a Man”), and others soon followed. Sparky D would join forces with Shanté for the 1985 EP Round 1, and go on tour with the revered DJ Red Alert. B Boy Records would release her debut album This Is Sparky-D's World in 1988, and then, in 1990, she landed on the Malcolm McLaren and World Famous Supreme Team cut “Operaa House.” After leaving the music business, Sparky would struggle with crack addiction, recovery, and move to Atlanta where she would reinvent herself as an EMT by night and gospel singer by day.