One of the most interesting things to come out of the firing of "The Cryptkeeper"(Imus) isn't that a crotchety old man said some extremely insensitive things about a group of defenseless young women, its how the topic somehow veered off course and became a referendum on rap music. Right wing commentators weren't the only ones who saw this as topical red meat either, even some black social commentators that I dearly respected started beating that very worn drumbeat as well - acting as if that argument wasn't already filled with more holes than Courtney Love's underwear drawer. Even if you saw only a few moments of news coverage over the past week, I bet you dollars to donuts that you saw some black person on your television screen passionately saying something like "We have to do something about rap music! The negative images, the misogyny, this is our chance to put it in check!!" That's the problem right there, many of these highly educated people should really know better based on a truth that I'm sure many parents around the world teach their ten year old's. That simple lesson being that nothing good ever comes out of broad generalizations. Sentences that begin with "All black people..", "Every gay person..", and "All women.." tend to not have the happiest of endings. Hip Hop is more than 30 years old, and it's the only genre that people tend to know nothing about but somehow feel right at home breaking down ad nauseum, the only genre where names like Bill O'Reilly and Wynton Marsalis are synonymous based on their blissful ignorance when it comes to Hip Hop.
The one thing that people of that ilk don't understand is that I fundamentally agree with their arguments, I can sit with them and watch B.E.T, MTV, or listen to the radio and echo the sentiments that what we are listening to is setting our people back 100 years or more. But that's not Hip Hop, that's "Clear Channel Hip Hop" or "Uncle Tom's Cabin" rap if you will, hardly examples that are representative of the artform. It's kind of like telling a Beatles fan, or a Jimi Hendrix fan in the 80's that the plethora of hair bands of the day represented rock music as a whole.
But what is surprising to me is how easily usually well intentioned black folks are getting pulled into an argument that all of us have been universally rebuking since our mother's passed us through their bodies: That argument being "If you can say the word N*gger, why can't I say it?" That's what this is all about, all of the white people who feverishly point to the "bitches and hoe's" in Hip Hop and openly wonder why Imus was fired for using that same kind of language, the black folks so eager to criticize the likes of Snoop Dog that they don't realize the diseased waters that they have been pulled into - the whole debate is just a glorified version of the question posed by white people across the globe: "You can say N*gger, why can't I?"
I won't go into how conflicted I've been over the "N-Word" the past few years, how trying to ban the word is akin to a child plugging his ears and screaming "LA-LA-LA-LA-LA" - I'll just provide some random Hip Hop songs that attempt to tackle the subject, sort of.(Some tackle it, others let it run past for the score. ahem.)Peace to Brother Omi.
Ice Cube: "The Nigga Ya love to Hate"
Jeru the Damaja: "The Frustrated Nigga"
Mos Def: "Mr Nigga"
Boogie Down Productions: "House Niggas"
The Coup: "I Ain't the Nigga"
A Tribe Called Quest: "Sucka Nigga"
Public Enemy: "Anti-Nigger Machine"
N.W.A: "Niggas 4 Life"