As you're all probably aware, there is a slight stink being fussed up about Dog The Bounty Hunter and what he said about his son?s girlfriend, thanks to his use of the word ‘nigger’ and how much it offends people.
So now you’d imagine that anyone who wants to escape with their career intact would avoid using that word in public like the plague, wouldn’t you? You should try explaining that to Nas, who’s decided to step into this odd situation. Not that anyone seems to have noticed, mind you. Nas is bringing out a record that’s tediously called Nigger. How convenient.
2007 seems to have been the international year of racism. In the UK, we've had our own racist incidents thanks to Big Brother. Whether it was Celebrity Big Brother, where ex-Big Brother pig-alike Jade Goody called Shilpa Shetty a few rude names, or on normal Big Brother where the posh blond bird called a black housemate a ‘nigger’, Big Brother was rocking racism like no other this year.
And where we have Big Brother, America has Dog The Bounty Hunter, a man whose loose tongue has literally fucked himself over by spraying off racial epithets into a recorded telephone line. Not only has he made all of his advertisers not want to touch him because of his wacky racist antics he's probably not going to have any work for a long time, even though he did later explain that he is in fact black himself. Obviously.
So with all hell breaking loose about one word and all social unease and mayhem it can cause, it would only be appropriate that Nas would choose to name his new album Nigger. Does it bother us? No, not particularly. That would be like Eminem calling his album Honky, although it doesn't quite have the same kind of shock effect as Nas’ choice of title. Nas said:
“[People] shouldn’t trip off the album’s title; the songs are crazier than the title. We’re taking power [away] from the word. No disrespect to none of them who were part of the Civil Rights Movement. Right now, we’re on a whole new movement.??
Of course, this has all been taken with a pinch of salt because giving albums shock-tactic titles for a sliver of publicity is what Nas does these days. First it was Hip-Hop Is Dead, now Nigger, soon it’ll be I Do It With Corpses and nobody will bat an eyelid.
Is a rapper calling his album Nigger and getting away with it double standards when a bounty hunter uses and sees his career destroyed? The jury’s still out. Although it’s been appropriated by the black community, there’s still no running from the word’s original hateful negative connotations towards black people, and whoever mentions it now is just stirring up a hornets nest.
We fully expect more media outrage to come next month as Nigger‘s release approaches, with mothers burning figures of Nas and singing rubbishy rhyming protest songs. More than likely they?ll make him change his album title so the little tykes don't get their head clogged up with naughty words.?Or Dog The Bounty Hunter will release a collaboration album with Nas showing how ghetto he is. It could be more comical then the time John Barnes and New Order made a single together.
Njgger says
Dear Nas,
I’m sorry you missed Richard Pryor but he already defused the N-word back in the 70s. The “new movement” already happened. The problem with the N-word NOW is that it has no fuse and when animals use it offensively it’s because they don’t expect it to blow up in their faces.
Please check with African America before you jump out and try to help someone again.
Thank you,
Njigger