FYI to America: Bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks

Now that I've got your attention...

Ben Folds - B^tches Ain't Shyt Live in Nashville



In the past (ie - pre-Michael Richards) I would have probably gotten upset about this and said something like:

"This is some corny azz shyt! Why are they trying to flip a rap song into this folk/bluegrass type -ish?"

"Why are other people always trying to steal our shyt?"

But I can honestly say that the Michael Richards incident was what it took to change my outlook on all this type of stuff. Meaning, the use of the word ni99a/ni99er and the more I think about it, the use of the word b&tch. I realized it a while ago but I guess I wasn't willing to accept it until recently. That is that we (the Blacks of the hip-hop generations) seem to have it all backwards.

We look at videos like the one above as if our music or our culture is being stolen. We get mad when we hear non-Blacks say "ni99a". We think that only we can say "the N-word" without caution and that it's deragatory and hate-filled when someone else uses it. But we're wrong. Not only are we wrong, we're hypocrites (myself included)!

A video like this exposes just how stupid, degrading, misogynistic, and anti-semitic (sp?) a lot of the stuff that rappers say really is and also how silly this double-standard surrounding the word ni99er really is. When you hear someone who doesn't: 1) look like a rapper, 2) enunciate like a rapper, 3) carry himself like a rapper, or 4) is non-Black and simultaneously not Eminem (LOL)...Then all-of-a-sudden it becomes unacceptable and hurtful. I know how many times I've referred to someone as a "b&tch-azz-ni99a" or a "ni99a" in general and I have never used the former in an endearing way, ever. And being honest with myself, I know it's probably a 50/50 split as to whether or not I used the latter as a term of endearment as opposed to a term of disdain/hate. So we really have to think about how we've been using the N-word and what we've really been saying all this time.

I say all this to say that I've realized that it's time for me to stop using those type of words. I know it may not be as easy as people would like for it to be, but I am starting to buy into what a lot of the elder Blacks (and non-Blacks) have been saying for awhile now and I am going to ween myself out of it. I must really be getting either old, more mature, or more intelligent (or maybe some odd and twisted combination of the three) because I definitely watched this video and felt embarassed. Snoop should too!