"Roxanne, Roxanne" is released

Why it matters

"Roxanne, Roxanne" is the first single ever released by UTFO, a Brooklyn group whose name stood for Untouchable Force Organization. UTFO was three rappers (Kangol Kid, Doctor Ice, and the Educated Rapper) plus a DJ (Mix Master Ice). The song was produced by Full Force, an R&B and production unit out of Bedford-Stuyvesant. Full Force are also the reason the beat sounds like it does (clean, mid-tempo, hooky, almost pop) instead of like everything else in mid-1984 hip-hop. Nobody on the record knew they were about to start a year-long industry-wide answer-record fight. They were trying to put out a cute B-side. The B-side cracked open the format. If you ever wondered whether you can plan to make a historic record or whether you just have to make a record and find out later, the answer is the latter, and Roxanne is one piece of evidence for it.