Black rappers that use 'the n word'

[bgmnts]

It's about whatever you want it to be about! :)

I wonder when my little one will first say the n-word and where they'll learn it? I'd feel responsible if all the words to Forgot About Dre are hidden in his brain somewhere

This is up there with "perfectly formed genitals" in terms of odd parental thoughts.

[checkoutgirl]

I don't think it's wise or healthy to have a private opinion about anything

It can be extremely healthy to have a private opinion about something, especially if it's a racial slur and there are the races involved in the vicinity.

[BeardFaceMan]

Pretty sure Richard Pryor stopped using the word at some point in his career.

I can remember Chris Rock saying he was going to stop saying it and he did for a while before slipping back into it. I've seen Reginald D Hunter say that he's not reclaiming the word as he's  pretty sure black people didn't invent it, he just says it because he likes the sound of it, a lot of times when it's used now it's more a cultural thing than a political thing. It's a complex, thorny issue, who would have thunk it?

[JaDanketies]

Just thought of two instances of non-black people who are respected as anti-racists publicly using the n-word while covering songs:

Rage Against the Machine- Fuck Tha Police
System of a Down - Shame (with Wu-Tang Clan)

What's especially weird about SOAD is that Wu-Tang Clan did the song with them! I guess to bring it back to the start, I think RATM doing a lyrically-accurate cover of Fuck Tha Police is a better reason to use the n-word than Drake and Future's rap about diamonds, bitches and n*****s. Perhaps back when SOAD and RATM did their songs, this 'it is never okay for yt and always okay for black people' viewpoint was not as firmly-established. Or maybe they get a pass.

I guess the common consensus is that it's not my place to have an opinion on what is a good reason to use the n-word, although I do kinda feel like I'm a member of society and I have interests in it, so I see no reason why I can't have an opinion on anything. But like Goblin noted earlier, the NAACP once symbolically buried the n-word, so it goes to show that a hell of a lot of black people don't like it when black people use the word frivolously too.

[JaDanketies]

It can be extremely healthy to have a private opinion about something, especially if it's a racial slur and there are the races involved in the vicinity.

I used to work with a bunch of Pakistani people and they would use the p*ki slur all the time. I remember a few times I'd be talking about someone and they'd ask me, "was he a p*ki?" and I was always very uncomfortable with answering that question. "Uh, no, he was not a Pakistani person.... I think you'll find that I do not think anyone is a p*ki...."

[El Unicornio, mang]

I've heard it used on American news programmes, it's not really known over there as a slur so it's just a shortened version of Pakistani. Kind of how Oriental is used here but is considered a racist slur over there.

[Utter Shit]

I've heard it used on American news programmes, it's not really known over there as a slur so it's just a shortened version of Pakistani.

This is indirectly causing me some aggro at the moment - my little boy is obsessed with dinosaurs and watches Youtube videos about them, some of which are American. Because there is no racial history of that word over there, they happily shorten pachycephalosaurus to 'pachy', and he's picked up on it.

True story: my cousins lived in Kerry when they were kids, and had a dog named Packie, after the legendary Irish goalkeeper Packie Bonner. They then moved to Wembley, where they had Asian neighbours living either side of them. Luckily there's no real punchline to the story - they quickly realised the problem and changed the dog's name to Bonner, the neighbours all understood the problem and found it funny, and everyone got along great. A bit Bernard Right-on, but that's the way it happened.

EDIT: Turns out I've told this story before, more or less verbatim:

Think I've mentioned this on here before, but my cousins moved over from rural Kerry in the early 90s with their dog Packie, named after the Irish goalkeeper of the time Packie Bonner. They moved to Wembley, one of the areas of London with the strongest Asian population. In between two Asian families.

Sadly there was no racial awkwardness or mayhem, they just renamed the dog Bonner and made friends with the families concerned. In fact they got to know them well enough that they told them the story, and seemingly both families found it hilarious.

[JaDanketies]

dog

Am I right in thinking that you're a significant figure in the UK hip hop scene?

[Utter Shit]

Na not me, I sell the odd beat here and there but more often than not to Americans, and certainly not a recognisable figure anywhere!

[Better Midlands]

You're a significant figure in the UK hip hop scene in our hearts US x.

[The Mollusk]

Na not me, I sell the odd beat here and there but more often than not to Americans, and certainly not a recognisable figure anywhere!

If you haven't unlocked the white guy n-word privilege achievement yet then you still have a ways to go but we're proud of you.

[Utter Shit]

You're a significant figure in the UK hip hop scene in our hearts US x.

I'm not entirely sure I'm a significant figure in my own home. But then, would any of those idiots appreciate that I'm (to my knowledge) the only person in hip-hop history to sample Mental Mickey from Only Fools And Horses? Would they fuck

[thenoise]

Black people will rap what I tell them to rap!

If black people want us to respect them, why won't they do as they're told?

[thenoise]

A suggestion for the hip hop loving white Dads.

[checkoutgirl]

I used to work with a bunch of Pakistani people and they would use the p*ki slur all the time. I remember a few times I'd be talking about someone and they'd ask me, "was he a p*ki?" and I was always very uncomfortable with answering that question. "Uh, no, he was not a Pakistani person.... I think you'll find that I do not think anyone is a p*ki...."

p**i could be viewed as an abbreviation I reckon. It hasn't the same power as the other word. I'm often uneasy about white english people being so politically correct and offended on behalf of all sorts of minorities be they differently abled or ethnic or what have you. If they're not offended why should you be? It seems inappropriate.

I'll say no more about it as I'm not interested in a big debate about it. It's boring. Except to say I do agree with Hunter S Thonpson though, the N can really add nice colour to a bit of stand up. Patrice, Pryor, Thompson, Rock, Chapelle, they've all done it and I'm glad they did. If some white middle class people get upset at them all the better.

[flotemysost]

The way I see it, it's not about being offended on anyone's behalf or pettily policing anyone else's use of language - more just recognising that (in the case of the N-word), if you never have and never will know what it's like to have that word used towards you or about you with aggressive or hateful (possibly even life-threatening) intent, then you don't really have any right to decide or debate the right and wrong situations in which to use it.

It is a complex and emotive issue (as this thread demonstrates) but I just think that my potentially having to use a euphemism or avoid saying something altogether, as an inconvenience to me that absolutely pales into insignificance against the potential hurt caused by reminding a black person that not only do these hateful terms exist, which are aimed at them and their family and steeped in a history of violence and bloodshed, but also that they can be tossed into conversation, uncensored, willy-nilly by those who aren't the target of that hate, thus belittling the victim's pain.

Of course not every individual who's the target of derogatory words is actually offended by them, but I don't trust myself to be that good a judge of subtle nuances of context in each situation, and so from my position of relative privilege it just doesn't seem worth taking that risk.

Having said that, I did piss myself laughing for several minutes straight when my ethnically Asian mum once (jokingly) called me a "honky" (my dad is white), just because she's normally very mild-mannered and English and it was totally and hilariously out of character.

[non capisco]

^flotemysost typically nails it, can we let this unwiped arse of a thread die now?

Rapping Necro at a baby to make it go to sleep, I ask you.

[thugler]

Just thought of two instances of non-black people who are respected as anti-racists publicly using the n-word while covering songs:

Rage Against the Machine- Fuck Tha Police
System of a Down - Shame (with Wu-Tang Clan)

What's especially weird about SOAD is that Wu-Tang Clan did the song with them! I guess to bring it back to the start, I think RATM doing a lyrically-accurate cover of Fuck Tha Police is a better reason to use the n-word than Drake and Future's rap about diamonds, bitches and n*****s. Perhaps back when SOAD and RATM did their songs, this 'it is never okay for yt and always okay for black people' viewpoint was not as firmly-established. Or maybe they get a pass.

I guess the common consensus is that it's not my place to have an opinion on what is a good reason to use the n-word, although I do kinda feel like I'm a member of society and I have interests in it, so I see no reason why I can't have an opinion on anything. But like Goblin noted earlier, the NAACP once symbolically buried the n-word, so it goes to show that a hell of a lot of black people don't like it when black people use the word frivolously too.

This is interesting. Does the fact that they're both minorities go some way to making it okay for them to use it? I find both instances a bit weird, but the SOAD one more so as it's a lot of times. RATM does have a black member of the band too.

[JaDanketies]

A suggestion for the hip hop loving white Dads.

that was good that

I think that is fair evidence that Adam Buxton would say the n-word if he was rapping along to Fuck Tha Police by himself, hope I'm not saying anything libellous

all y'all saying that you hope the thread will die - you literally don't have to post in it, or read it

[Mr Farenheit]

Do you have kids, Mollusk? I mean it's not like I especially care about the n word in Drake songs but I care enough to make a whole topic now I've got a kid. Kinda like how people say you get more invested in the world when you've got a kid

Check out Andrea Leadsom over here

[El Unicornio, mang]

True story: my cousins lived in Kerry when they were kids, and had a dog named Packie, after the legendary Irish goalkeeper Packie Bonner. They then moved to Wembley, where they had Asian neighbours living either side of them. Luckily there's no real punchline to the story - they quickly realised the problem and changed the dog's name to Bonner

I thought the punchline was going to be that they were huge fans of The Dam Busters and...

[Satchmo Distel]

I don't think Lennon regarded 1972 as his best year in retrospect. He abandoned that form of songwriting very quickly. His views on black culture were a product of his time - he clearly loved Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, etc, but was inclined to engage in stereotypes. Not as bad as Clapton but less than enlightened, such as using the word 's**des'.

The particular song was a result of him thinking that everything his wife said was genius, as if she were a guru. He couldn't imagine that his wife had a stunning lack of empathy for anyone who wasn't in her close circle.

[Sin Agog]

I'm not sure I get why Patti Smith had to go all enny in Rock N Roll N---.  The song is clearly about being a lost little suburban lamb with no identity who then finds herself in the bohemian, artistic world beyond the fringes of society, but the whole n thing, especially the bit where she says that James Hendrix, Jackson Pollock and Christ were, you know- it's just sophomoric in the way Beat types often could be.  I guess she's saying black people are automatically relegated there, but I'm sure there were black working joes at the time who'd have something to say about that.

[phantom_power]

I think at that time a lot of people thought we were moving past racism so using those words wasn't a problem because obviously they weren't racist people so why not? It was simultaneously used for effect to make the point more forceful while at the same time expecting people to not get offended because the person using the term was right-on and non-racist

[The Mollusk]

I think at that time a lot of people thought we were moving past racism so using those words wasn't a problem because obviously they weren't racist people so why not? It was simultaneously used for effect to make the point more forceful while at the same time expecting people to not get offended because the person using the term was right-on and non-racist

For sure. The one that irks me the most is White Punks on Hope by Crass:

They said that we were trash
Well the name is Crass not Clash
They can stuff their punk credentials
Cause it's them that take the cash
They won't change nothing with their fashionable talk
Their RAR badges and their protest walk
Thousands of white men standing in a park
Objecting to racism like a candle in the dark
Black man's got his problems and his way to deal with it
So don't fool yourself you're helping with your white liberal shit
If you care to take a closer look at the way things really stand
You'd see we're all just n*****s to the rulers of this land

For heaven's sake Steve. I get what you're trying to say but maybe wind it in a bit yeah?

In my "punkier than thou" adolescence I thought that intro was brilliantly scathing but the more I grew up and learned to appreciate the greatness of pop music the more I realised that this was a rather unfortunate example of pretentious White privilege posturing from a band I do otherwise still greatly respect.

[JaDanketies]

Wow I always thought Born Slippy had the n-word in it, they just played it uncensored on MTV Classic. Turns out they say 'mega mega white thing mega mega'. I almost put my foot through the telly and sent Renton from Trainspotting the bill!

[Captain Z]

Just say 'knickers' instead. Problem solved.

[JaDanketies]

Just say 'knickers' instead. Problem solved.

shouting knickers knickers white thong knickers knickers