Here is an American thought experiment: I hate the N word. I can list the reasons until the end of time why non non African peoples should never say that word.
But can any African Americans list of reasons why they should use it?
I mean just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. I can slam my d☆ck in a door, but it doesn’t mean I should.
I’ll write an essay later about how the N word has confused several generations of non Africans in this Country, who we can all agree, too often don’t know why they shouldn’t say it, whether it ends with an hard R or a soft A.
Any one can use it. I will not. But our Constitution explicitly protects the fact we can. Bob Dylan, Twain, and Paul Simon used it in their art, but not me. Nope.
I will not, even though my co-writers on our records used the noun —- as Black artists. I wish they hadn’t. But I respected them and their writing enough to let their voice be heard uncensored by such limitations. But it’s kind of a bummer.
I believe that the future of Hip Hop’s past is in peril because of the art form’s dependence on arguably the sh☆ttiest word in the English language that only a minority of our global population is given the so called license to express.
But all things must pass, except the language we pass on to the next, often without context, as our mistakes are repeated in a perpetual loop of human tragedy.
What happens when the generation of African Americans posting memes explaining why this generation of White people or even well meaning Mongolian herders can’t use it, can no longer post such warning signs, because they are dead and Hip Hop lives.
What happens when they are no longer protecting us from a rain of N word laced Karaoke party jams, because we’re all just eventually dust in the wind?
Because Karaoke is a f☆cking problem for the future of Rap’s past.
I have already witnessed the awkwardness of the present.
“And Brad just performed the correct lyrics of Kanye West’s ‘Gold Digger’ at the company party.”
Regardless of the Karaoke question, African music will refuse die because it is so good, thus the N word maybe wrapped in an immortal coil we shall eventually not live long enough to truly regret.
These records may outlast our own nations and dialects, and be the very basis of future languages, driven by popular usage at the time.
Anyone want to show a Hip Hop word cloud of the 1000 most important rap songs of all time? You can talk about Hip Hop and Afrika Bambaataa (though now you might not), but as a man that can rap and celebrates the culture, I am talking about RAP.
I just don’t think that people get that this license is stamped by a broader society that actually celebrates African Americans keeping that word alive on some of otherwise the greatest recordings of all time, because of a profound disrespect for African people.
It was a trap. It was always a trap.
“Here you have this grenade, I’ll take the pin. Feel free to throw it at us while we’re in other room.”
Maybe I’ll be enlightened about why the word has really made the world a better place. I still cringe when I even hear Tupac say it. When I hear Drake say the N word, I feel ashamed for Canada.
And I am not talking about the other N word that won’t go away, that we shouldn’t stop saying or forgetting the real meaning of, because we all can: Nazi.
But I promise you that Nazis believe that the N word made rap much more relatable for them. What a f☆cking gift that keeps on giving to Neo Nazism.
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many ventures, such as the AMAZING blog, 100milesofmusic.com. Davin’s new song has become a global earworm and Caribbean dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN. The video is now available on Youtube: Tuff Gong Television. His single with British band Sherlock Soul is available here.
