Graycap23 said:

My statement was a bit off topic, that's why I edited it out (but you responded quickly). Your topic was about degrading one's own culture.

Still I don't think inflicting lesser pains is okay just because it could be worse.

MikeMatronik said:

rappers speak on record how they speak in life, u cant expect them to say nigga on the street and then dont use it in their songs.
rappers didnt begin the everyday use of the word among blacks, they're just helping to further it

Fury said:

and this is the type of thinkin thats causing problems. first off nigga and nigger ARE the same, no matter how anyone tries to twist it. and it REALLY trips me out how blacks get offended when non blacks say it, ESPECIALLY the ones that are always sayin "but its just a word!"

Not again!

Moonwalkbjrain said:

you can't regulate terminology--simple as that. back in the 60's and 70's...black folks were saying "whassup c**n"..not saying it's right--but it's been going for years and the outcry from prince.org/non-prince forum ain't gonna change that...unless somebody up in here owns clear channel or viacom.

Graycap23 said:

Some young white people call themselves wiggers/wiggas or straight up white n***as.

I know Asians & Mexicans wouldn't stand for that foolishness.

And we all know the Jews make Michael Jackson edit some bad words out of a song once.

dancerella said:

Niggaz With Attitude/N.W.A. was a name that Eazy-E & Dr.Dre came up with for one important purpose: Stock Value!

Think about it. Before 1988, both "n-words" were consider a hateful word to call blacks because it was like calling them (as Rick James used to explain it) "foul fish". And hell yeah it was very racist.

But after N.W.A. came along, the stock value of "nigger" was still there. But the shock value of "nigga" had since drop to the point that (as Yahweh as my real witness) I notice that white teen that are hip-hop/rap fans were caling themselves niggas.

What a difference 18 years make.

It's not for me to judge whether black folks should use the N word, but when i hear white people use it like they're hip they sound just as idiotic as when they use it the old fashioned way.

Moonwalkbjrain said:

Yes you can actually. It was done all the time back when rap first came on the scene in the late 70's early 80's. It was not accteptable to use that term on recordings.

Fury said:

o no i understand that and the bolded part was exactly my point in my other post

NDRU said:

In Europe, does that count as being clav?

TonyVanDam said:

no comprendo

Ifsixwuz9 said:

i mean current rap altho i didnt know that early rappers didnt use it

Moonwalkbjrain said:

you hit it right on the head. i hate when people say that one version of that god awful word is better than the other and how can you get mad at other people using it when they hear black people using it all day long.

one more thing. i read that dave chapelle started to re-think his show after they had filmed a skit where he uses that word, etc and a white person was laughing "in the wrong way". that really tripped me out. so it never occured to him that white people would laugh at him in a way that was "inappropriate"? wtf?? anyway, i guess he atleast eventually saw the light.

Moonwalkbjrain said:

Richard Pryor's use it for a long time, tho

NDRU said:

Richard Pryor wasn't a rapper or musician.

Giovanni777 said:

...and 2 stay even more directly on the topic...

Gray is talking about self destruction, with an existing relationship between 3 distinctive "players"... when he mentions the music and movie stars, this includes comedians, writers, etc... they perpetuate the images, which R financed by the financiers... In film it's the Producers, and in music, it's the label. The 3rd, and most important player is the reciever...i.e. the public, the listener, the watcher... The Audience.

When Gray mentions the period of 10 years, it makes total sense, as that is: A) the exact time period of the greatest degradation of R&B and Hip-Hop, both lyrically and musically. Even though what he's talking about has existed 4 years before this period, he is saying that it's been 10 years, plus, that this shit has been perpetuated. I mean, I'm glad DeNiro has recently said that he won't do anymore mafioso flicks... Don't get me wrong... I do like some of the mafia related flicks, but only if there's an aspect of realism... not the bullshit that makes everyone forget that Southern Italian culture is really mostly about love, music, and good food... Let's see a film about that make it 2 the theater or TV.

Lest I degress, Gray makes a serious point about a serious issue. Granted, this should be in "General Discussion", but I can see why it's here... Because music is a major perpetrator these days...

Peace.
[Edited 9/18/06 18:27pm]

A large portion of the Black population is self-hating. Why? That's a thread for p&r.
If you told me the only negative thing in rap would be the n-word, I would be happy, why would I be happy? Because the glorification of misogyny, drugs and violence would be gone.....(in music)..... Attacking women, selling drugs to destroy one's own people for nominal profit, killing for no reason. Imagine if Mos Def, Common, Paris, Public Enemy typifyed the content of hip-hop. The modern rappers are less than minstrels. A minstrel was multi-talented, could sing, dance and act; he had very few options. A minstrel was only a minstrel on stage, these rappers are minstrels on and off. Thug Life is bullshit. These thug rappers are not to be admired.

Let me go after the big ones:

Jay-Z (The head Jigga in charge) : You gotta be one ignorant motherfucker to turn one of the most Love affirming Black songs like Ain't No Woman Like the One I Got by the four tops into something like Ain't No Nigga. This motherfucker gonna go on Charlie Rose and when Charlie asked him Why the name Rocafella, he's gonna say Rockefeller represents the best in America. I guess Jigga thinks criminal monopolies are the best.

Biggie: I've been robbing nigga's since the slave ships. Imagine a jewish artist saying he was robbing in auschwitz?

Tupac: a Thug hero, big fuckin' deal. When he wasn't in jail with millions of other Black men, He was in videos were alcohol was being poured down a women's vagina.

I have nothing against these men, they're oppressed Black men who can't do shit to empower Black people. They might be able to help their families and get some brothers a job, but that's it and all they should be recognized for besides their talents. They have the power to really help Black people by promoting self-love and empowerement, which wouldn't cost a thing. They don't ,they keep using the word nigga. They thing about the word nigger, it could be used as some fad term of enderment, but it can never imply respect for another person.

Would you call your mother a nigger? your father, grandparents? Would you call MLK a nigger. Malcom X? anyone who was a decent human being worthy of respect? That's the thing, anyone who call themselves or other people a nigger, doesn't respect themselves. These rappers aren't using the word as satire or as empowering as some artist did in the 70's, despite 2pacs Never Ignorant About Getting Goals Accomplished ...what goals did 2pac get accomplished?

There is a negative aspect to all music as a controlling mechanism, as John Lennon was trying to say near the end of his life. We all have to worry!!!

Better question? Does anybody here know about Norwegian Black Metal? Bands kill each other and eat the body parts... imagine if this one genre dominated an entire culture or was as pervasive as hip-hop in the Black community. Imagine if Norwegian Black Metal was Norway's most proftable and visible commercial export?
[Edited 9/18/06 18:52pm]

lilgish:

So on point.
[Edited 9/18/06 19:03pm]

I'm digging the dialog on this subject. I'm currently searching 4 ways 2 end some of this foolishness. I 4 one am very TIRED of the whole act. It's PLAYED way out 4 me.

dancerella said:

I just thought we should acknowledge exactly how Prince used the word.


To address Gray's question, I can't imagine those groups of people choosing to use racial slurs to describe themselves, in casual conversation or lyric.

Graycap23 said:

I can see where you're coming from, mate. However this has never been a big issue for white people, as NDRU stated in a previous post.

Fury said:

Moon is correct, there is NO DIFFERENCE they both mean the same thing, which btw is fact check the history of the words. The change occurred further back in history, people (white folks) changed the "er" to an "a" because they believed it showed blacks that they weren't racist because they didn't call them nigger they called them nigga instead which means the same thing it was just a nicer way to say it….so they thought and just because people say it doesn’t make it right….

dancerella said:

I have mixed feelings about this, Dance. My Grandmother R.I.P. was born and raised in the Jim Crow South. She experienced all the bigotry and hatred you've read about in books, and some even worse. But you know what? She didn't let it make her bitter. She had the funniest sense of humor. And she could use that N- word in a way that would have you on the floor laughing. What I'm trying to say is that it's all in the way it's used. Now these Fake, CB4 gangsta rappers who use it in every other word sound Dumb, Ignorant and Uneducated.

I don't believe in the "thug/gangsta rapper" term at all.

Eddie Griffin puts it on check, he said:

The 2 'gangsta and rapper' don't go 2ghether like oxy moron.

The 1st code about being a gangsta is; silence. Rappers TALK TOO DAMN MUCH.

A rapper is a name dropping motherfucker, he tells the rules of the game.

Thanks god we have LaToya Jackson!

MikeMatronik said:

And Paula Abdul

funkpill said:

Graycap23 said:

Fury....



Personally Gray, I'm not listening to music that says "n" this or that and I have to say, I haven't even heard the word said on the radio. Yes, rappers still use the word in their unedited or other versions but its not something I'm still hearing all the time like I use to.

I'm also not going to discredit my black brothers and sisters by implying that WE as entire ppl would just "allow" this. I do hear the outcry of black folks who are upset by the continued use of the word.



You're calling black folks ignorant and passive, collectively. That's what I get from this rant of "only my race would tolerate this" mess. Everytime we have this discussion, all I see are black folks upset by the use of the word.

Its all in what you want to see.

Rhondab said:

I hear but I think one of the points of this thread? No other race BUT Us would accept this. I find that interesting in and of itself.