RIP Sparky Dee (Doreen C. Broadnax) – RapReviews

If you’re wondering why the thumbnail for this tribute is a generic “hip-hop” graphic of two deejays on the turntables, it betrays a sad truth about today’s subject. Despite being an important pioneer for rap music in general and female emcees in particular, there aren’t any good public domain photos of Doreen C. Broadnax b/k/a Sparky Dee. The image on her Wikipedia bio had already been marked for deletion so I wasn’t going to even try to use it. Fair use might cover it. Newsworthy coverage of an important person might also cover it. The thing is if even Wikipedia doesn’t believe those two things justify its inclusion in her biography, how can I? If some photographer from the 80’s has a picture of her that he or she wants to donate, I’ll share it with them and we can collectively give her bio an eternal glow up.

If you’re not old enough to qualify for an AARP membership it would be fair to ask “Who the hell is Sparky Dee?” or “Why so much reverence for someone I’ve never heard of?” Well fine. I get that time marches on and leaves history in the dust, but I’m also here to tell you that without pioneers like Sparky Dee, some of your favorite rappers wouldn’t be here today. The funny thing is if it wasn’t for U.T.F.O.’s almost accidental hit “Roxanne, Roxanne” she wouldn’t be either. It was the B-side of a single called “Hanging Out” but ended up performing much better than the intended commercial record. Each rapper dropped a memorable verse about being spurned by a lady named Roxanne and the simple stripped down beat gave it an instant hardcore sound at a time when rap was dying to shed its disco glam.

The song gained so much traction that female rappers took up the baton and responded to U.T.F.O. as though they were “Roxanne” herself, explaining in their own words exactly why their advances were thwarted and how little respect she had for them. The first and most famous of these tracks was “Roxanne’s Revenge” by Roxanne Shante, but this in turn led producer Spyder D to enlist Broadnax for a response TO the response. You might in fact see a pattern in this that still plays out on social media platforms today, where everyone has to give their hot take on someone else’s hot take, but instead of being a circle jerk for a few views and a few pennies in ads the “Roxanne Wars” turned aspiring rappers into stars.

“I’m different, and gifted, and better than terrific
And if you don’t like it, you got to deal with it”

It certainly broke Sparky Dee through to the rap world after a previously unsuccessful stint as one-third of a rap trio called The Playgirls. Calling out other rappers has always carried with it an element of risk that a battle on wax would spill over into a real life fight. Instead both Roxanne Shante and Sparky Dee recognized that this was a moment they could capitalize on, and they released a 12″ single TOGETHER where the two traded bars and shared the spotlight. There were no shortage of rappers calling themselves Roxanne-this and Roxanne-that, but Shante and Sparky D were savvy enough to focus on each other and both reap the benefits.

I wish I could say this propelled her to even greater heights, the likes of which Shante would herself see, along with a crop of rising female talent of the era like MC Lyte and Queen Latifah. The sad truth is that her career peaked in 1988 with a full length album on the notorious B-Boy Records, after which (by her own account) her life took a sad turn into prostitution, drug use, and domestic abuse. I’m sure getting little to no royalties from a poorly marketed and promoted album didn’t help her with any of those things.

The GOOD NEWS is that she was not forgotten. Cheryse Dyllan portrayed her in the movie “Roxanne Roxanne” for Netflix, and while the focus of the film is Roxanne Shante there’s no doubt Sparky Dee played a role in making Shante a star (and vice versa) so it’s historically accurate to include her. How many hip-hop films do you know that get basic facts like that wrong? Let’s applaud the ones that get it right. Doreen C. Broadnax, known either as Sparky Dee or Sparky D, passed away on July 4th of this year at the age of 61. Let’s continue to praise the trail she blazed for emcees in the 1980’s and let her memory be a blessing in the years to come.