I fucking love Hip Hop and I’m not ashamed to say it. But whenever I listen to Childish Gambino, or Kanye, or nearly any modern black artist, I have to censor myself to make sure that in my enthusiasm I don’t accidentally say the one avoided word out loud, which is hard considering its frequency of use, and how damn good the lyrics are.
Even though it is just a component of the lyrics – a mode of reference used in this musical context to indicate one’s friend or fellow person – I still feel very uncomfortable saying the “N” word when repeating the lyrics myself. This is firstly because of its obvious derogatory history, which shall always resonate when spoken by the white mouths which engendered its etymology, but also simply because as someone of inherent white privilege I don’t feel that I have a right to.
It annoys the hell out of me when white/non-black then use the word in their colloquial speech. Not only because they sound and look like twats, but because they are repeating the historiographical trend of colonialism and conquest: they are hijacking something which a minority culture has claimed (or reclaimed) as its own.
The “N” word as used in black music and culture to denote the recognition of a close friend or brother was adopted and given a new signification as a sort of “fuck you” to the racist perpetrators who used it as a method of belittlement; it is a way for the victimized to use the very mode of degradation to take back power for themselves.
For this reason I feel we (i.e non-black people) cannot tell these artists what to and what not to do for reasons of ‘political correctness’ and ‘appropriateness’.
Whilst part of me feels that by keeping this disgusting word in circulation we are normalising and rendering acceptable its usage, I also believe that its new signification, attributed to it by black culture, is distinctly different and evolved from its original connotations. I now hear it on Mare Street shouted between close friends, whereas my parents may have sadly overheard it spat at their friends in the street.
I’m not sure how I feel about non-black people using the “N” word when simply, and most likely innocently repeating song lyrics. I guess the only reason I refrain from doing so is because my consciousness of the politics of the word overpower the Kanye-esque alter-ego I adopt when I’ve got my headphones on.
Ironically, there are far worse cultural representations in Hip Hop (THOSE OF WOMEN AS ‘HOES’) which need to be addressed and appropriated, as they have no legitimacy or agency within any art form of any culture. In the mean time, all it takes is a little bit of common sense and intellect to judge what type of language is appropriate to be used, and by whom.
What it is like, or what it is like in words. 