"I'm a nigga. He's a nigga. She's a nigga. We some niggas. Wouldn't you like to be a nigger too?" This is the chorus of New York rapper Nas' debut single off his new album, which is surprisingly called, Nigger. The N word is a frequent characteristic of American Hip-Hop and has even moved into the UK Grime scene. It is not uncommon to hear UK rapper Kano flippantly blurt out the occasional Nigger in his tracks. Is it really necessary though? How many times can Nigger be used in one track? (That said, I've used it about ten times in my opening paragraph!) Overuse of the N word is nothing but a cheap attempt at controversy to boost album sales.
The most interesting part of Nas' chorus is the line "Wouldn't you like to be a nigga too?" It reflects a change in society, a change that sees being black as suddenly favourable. Over the years being black has become cool with the kids. Black people can sing, dance and come from a generally creative and colourful culture that has become appealing to other races. When I was at school, year nine if I remember correctly , there was an explosion of the "Wigga"- white people that 'acted black' if there is such a thing. They would cornrow their hair and put huge amounts of gel in it to imitate the amount of products black women put in their hair. They would do their best to convey a certain attitude black people were supposed to posssess .
Nas goes on to say "To all my kike niggas, spice niggas, guinea niggas, chink niggas, that's right y'all my niggas too." The way he uses the N word could be regarded as quite intelligent , as the message he is trying to put across is clear. By addressing his "chink niggas" and "guinea niggas" he asserts (but still very offensively using words chink and guinea, as well as nigga) that no matter what race one is, they're still his nigga, in other words, his mate.
The meaning of nigga is distorted in Hip-Hop and Black American culture. Originally it was a cruel, racist word with the aim of degrading black people. At present it is a word black people use when addressing each other, almost like at greeting, or calling someone brother. Neverthelesss, it is still very offensive. Black people's continued use of the word only reinforces memories of a time when black people were the shit on a white man's shoe.
So maybe the N word should not be used anymore. It's offensive, it's rude, it's racist, but above all it's controversial, rappers know this which is why they'll never stop saying it, the controversy is too crucial on their bank balance. Nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga. Now I'm controversial maybe you'll read more of my articles.
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