First off let me say thanks to Isocialite for giving me the chance to contribute and I hope to bring you more thought provoking posts in the future
So I listened to the V-nasty again...I forgot which white girl rapper it was. Funny, if you notice a few weeks ago, I posted about the desire for there to be a successful white female rapper to take off where Eminem started. Right after, Kreayshawn popped up from the Bay area with "Gucci, Gucci" and a day or so later, V-nasty appeared on world star with a freestyle:
So both of these females are supporting each other (are they actual sisters?) and coming from an area that is known as a niche and trying to expand. The issue most people have is that in their music, they are known to drop the word 'nigga'. Black folks immediately seem to be shitting their draws over this, I'm here to say one thing-get over it.
We don't 'own' the word, it was derived from the French word negre and stuck as the derogatory term for us black people in the country for years. It was adapted and over the past 60 years or so, the meaning for the most part has been changed especially when used int he social context as slang as you see in most rap songs. Saying "that's my nigga right there" is a different term from a slave-owner using it and yes the 'er' does make a difference as it takes the contempt and disrespect from the word. As it is today, when you look at hip-hop and its influence it seems patently obvious that people who grow up listening to hip-hop will eventually use the slang associated with it regardless of race.
It's 2011 and fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you see things more of the generations starting with mine (I'm almost 30) and following are identifying less with their racial features and more with the group of people they live around and share likes with. The spread of music and migration of people into more diverse communities has made the traditional lines harder to see and older people often are somewhat confused by this. It might be easier if I tell you the exact two moments that made me, a person who has never experienced that real,true racism, understand that the word nigger or nigga was not the same as it had been just a scant 15-20 years earlier.
Continued on Yet another Hip Hop Blog...
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