Sparky D

Born in Brooklyn, Broadnax was born to a Caucasian mother and African–American father. Broadnax was raised in the Van Dyke Housing Projects in Brownsville neighborhood.^[1][2]

Broadnax was a member of a local hip-hop group, The Playgirls, along with City Slim and Mo Ski, recording "Our Picture of a Man" for Sutra Records in 1984.^[2] In 1984, 14–year old rapper Roxanne Shante released "Roxanne's Revenge," a response to U.T.F.O.'s record "Roxanne, Roxanne," a song about a woman who would not respond to their advances.^[3] Taking offense to Shante's attack on a fellow Brooklyn crew, Broadnax responded with "Sparky's Turn (Roxanne You're Through)" on NIA Records and produced by Spyder-D.^[4] This, in turn, kicked off the Roxanne Wars, is a well-known series of hip hop rivalries during the mid-1980s, yielding perhaps the most answer records in history.

In 1985, capitalizing off the success of both records, Roxanne Shante and Broadnax released "Round One, Roxanne Shanté vs Sparky Dee" on Spin Records which included a battle track, in which the two rappers freestyle and diss each other.^[4] In subsequent years, Broadnax released a few tracks including d “He’s My DJ” b/w “She’s So Def” with Kool DJ Red Alert in 1985 and "Throwdown" in 1987.^[2] The year 1988 saw the release of her first full-length album on B-Boy Records, This is Sparky D’s World.^[2] Broadnax continues to stay active in the hip hop community, working with various old school artists on hip hop gospel records including MC Shy D, Spyder D, Roxanne Shante, Kool DJ Red Alert and K Wiz.^[1][5]

Broadnax has stated in interviews that she was a victim of domestic abuse, struggled with a crack cocaine addiction and was involved in prostitution sometime after the height of her career.^[6] In 2017, Broadnax was portrayed by Cheryse Dyllan in Netflix film Roxanne, Roxanne, a biopic about the life of Roxanne Shante.