Remember Shari Headley, also known as “Lisa McDowell” of the ‘McDowell family’ on Coming To America? Well our girl, “Lisa” may have married “Prince Akeem” (Eddie Murphy’s character) and became the ‘Princess of Zamunda’ in the movie, but in real life she was married to an artists from back in the day who was dominating 80’s hip hop for a while.
We’re not quite sure how they kept this one on the hush back in the day, but somehow they did.
Shari Headley Was Married To…
Shari Headley with then husband, Christopher “Play” Martin
Her ex-husband is Play of the rap group, Kid N’ Play! Who knew?!! Sing it with me now: “Oh la-oh-la-aye-aye! Rollin’ rollin’ roll with Kid N’ Play now!” Christopher “Play” Martin and Shari Headley are no longer married. They married in May 1993, divorced in 1995, and have one son together, Skyler Martin.
By the way, Shari is now 57 years young and looking just as beautiful as she did back in ’88. Check her out below, rapping a in a behind-the-scenes video from the Coming To America sequel…
Eddie Murphy and Shari Headley filming “Coming To America 2”
Here’s an Old School Fun Fact about Play
He was a hip hop teacher at North Carolina Central University until budget cuts forced the school to lay him off in 2009. After students learned about his firing, they began a petition to demand that Martin be given back his teaching position. Play also serves as a professional-in-residence with the Institute for Hip Hop and Music Industry Studies that Clemons directs at Florida A & M University, and he devotes time to the non-profit group Campaign for Change.
Christopher “Play” Martin
Word on the Old School curb is that Play was also preaching at one point in time, but we couldn’t get that confirmed as of yet, so that’s still in our stash of rumor mill stories…not verified facts. We’ll keep you posted on that one though.
Christopher “Play” Martin is now 59 years young…and every now n’ then, he and his fellow group member, Kid, reunite. It would be cool to see an Old School concert with them doing their signature dances that everybody used to try to mimic at the clubs and school dances back in the day.
-ILoveOldSchoolMusic, Old School news with a new point of view
