Jay-Z, the Kids and All His ‘Niggas’ Blow Up on Chris Rock

Maybe it’s me… Maybe I’m missing the point..but last night I had an experience that left me disturbed. I watched the wonderful PBS documentaryAfricans In America which chronicles the horrors of slavery. I watched the show and I came away proud knowing that a lot of my forefathers and foremothers did not go out like punks. They fought they resisted and they showed some amazing resilience which allowed us as a people to survive. I watched the show and left me with a lot to think about. It was deep..

So afterwards I switched the channel to catch the Chris Rock Show. I think
Chris is funny and I like the fact that he can get political. But last
night I really wanted to peep out the show cause Jay-Z was on and he’s only
done one show here in Northern Cali. He unfortunately came out here during
the height of the East West Coast drama and folks was trying to heat up on
him while he performed.. So I wanted to see how the man with the number one
album in the country would get down..

So Jay-Z hits the stage to perform his hit single ‘Hard Knock Life’ which
uses the chorus from the play ‘Annie’. He’s surrounded by about a dozen
beautiful young brothers and sisters. I’m saying to myself this is cute..
Jay-Z has the kids singing the hook to the song.. He does the song and I
notice that Jay-Z is not using profanity.. So I start to give him props.. I
expect the Chris Rock Show to get raunchy and raw.. I have no problem with
that.. But I was happy Jay-Z showed that respect and didn’t do the unedited
version of his song with all those little kids sitting on stage with him. I
felt he was being responsible. Then it struck like a searing knife..
My admiration quickly subsided and turned to anger when out of Jay-Z’s
mouth came the infamous ‘N’ word.. Over and over again he used word.. He
paid tribute to his ‘Nigga’ Notorious BIG.. He asked all his ‘Niggas’ to
put their hands up.. He gave big shout outs to all his Niggas.. He dropped
the word several more times in the song while all the beautiful kids who
looked like they couldn’t be older then 10 or 11 sat on stage swaying to
the beat of the music.

So here I am watching Jay-Z performing the number one song in the country
right now. He’s doing a clean version of the song while at the same time
letting the word ‘Nigga’ fly left and right. Yes, he used the word ‘nigga’,
the word that white and Asian kids feel comfortable using when referring to
each others and even to us. Not only are folks comfortable but now a lot of
people feel it’s their God given right to use the word Nigga. If you don’t
believe me.. you should check out all the letters I got and view some of
the responses people left on my website’s Hip Hop Message Board. Last week
I put up a set of rules to prevent spamming.. I asked people not to post
any porno pictures and to not do multiple posts. I also suggested to people
that they think twice before using the N word. I wrote that it’s an
offensive term for many people including myself. For many it’s the ultimate
disrespect in which lives were lost and blood was shed. I understand that a
lot of folks use the word as a term of endearment. But you never used the
word in mixed company.. And if you did it was usually placed in a certain
context and laced with political overtones.. i.e Richard Pryor. Well
needless to say I got emails from as far away as New Zealand from angry
folks who did not understand why I was trippin’. Can you imagine that.. I’m
accused of trippin’ for asking people to refrain from using the word
Nigga.

I got emails from white kids who tried to explain that they only use the
word when they’re rappin’ on the mic.. Others explained that they’re ‘down
with hip hop and the streets and their ‘close’ Black friends don’t mind. I
had brothers explain that they use the word ’cause that’s how they talk. ‘I
was raised that way and I ca