Well known Seattle DJ- B-Mello alerted us to this incredibly racist article that recently appeared in ‘The Stranger’ which is supposed to be a weekly ‘Progressive‘ Newspaper. According to B-Mello the regular Hip Hop Columnist, Samuel L. Chesneau was let go from the newspaper after he missed his deadline. He wrote a weekly column called ‘The Truth’. Apparently he was on tour managing a group. From the looks of the article, The Stranger decided to bring in a substitute columnist and Stranger editor Dan Savage who calls himself a ‘cocksucking, musical theater’ fan.

My guess is that the substitute column was written poorly with the attempt to recruit new writers and alert readers just how bad Hip Hop will be treated without a qualified writer. For example, he writes about his experience in listening to a DJ Spinna CD where someone is Beatboxing and how it sounds like a fart. This ‘faked’ clueless approach to Hip Hop music is somewhat understandable although lame, gets the point across. The newspaper needs a Hip Hop writer. What wasn’t excusable was Savage referring to a colleague as ‘Scholar Nigger’.

Apparently there’s a guy on The Stranger’s staff named Charles Mudede who goes around the office calling himself ‘Scholar Nigger’. This in turn led to Savage feeling comfortable enough to refer to him throughout the article by that name.

It’s bad enough that we have folks running around that think its ok..to use the ‘N’ word in mixed company. That’s an ongoing debate within the African American community. It gets compounded when it shows up in public discourse because now when folks start to object and point out how offended they are, the person using the term-in this case Stranger editor Dan Savage can smugly refer back to his colleague Charles Mudede who likes to call himself that. I’m not sure if Mr Mudede is African American or not, the term is still offensive.

Lastly what makes this incident even harder to deal with is that the formal spelling of the ‘N’ word is used. Most people who insist on blissfully using the word like to make the claim that when they use the word they are spelling it N-I-G-G-A as opposed to N-I-G-G-E-R. I’ve been on dozens of panels and discussions where rap artists and others insist that there’s a difference in the use of the word. The NIGGA spelling is supposed to be the Hip HOp, more friendly-terms of endearment spelling while the NIGGER spelling is the racist term. I have no idea who came up with this rule. I don’t agree with it at all, but nevertheless, that theory goes out the window with respect to this article in the Stranger.

This guy Mudede refers to himself as NIGGER and the editor Dan Savage references him with that particular spelling. Hence no matter how you slice it and no matter who many mind games we play with using this word as a term of endearment and pointing out its dual meanings-Savage and The Stranger crossed the line. Shame on this Mudede cat who allows himself to be referred to as a Scholar Nigger

Here’s the offensive article..
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THE LIE
The Hiphop Tipped Over
www.thestranger.com/current/hiphop.html

Editor’s Note: The Stranger is currently without a hiphop columnist. Until we find a new one, Stranger editor–and cocksucking musical theater fan–Dan Savage will be filling in.
“I’m fascinated by rap and by hiphop,” Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry recently told an MTV reporter. “I think there’s a lot of poetry in it. There’s a lot of anger, a lot of social energy in it. And I think you’d better listen to it pretty carefully, ’cause it’s important.”

I have to admit that Kerry’s comments cut me to the quick. Was I less hip than a U.S. senator who appears to have been born with a silver stick in his ass? The only hiphop performance I’d ever seen was that rapping granny in The Wedding Singer. Worried that I was missing out on an important art forum infused with poetry, anger, and energy, I asked Charles Mudede, Stranger staffer and self-confessed “scholar nigger,” to make a CD for me featuring a selection of hiphop tunes.

The first song was DJ Spinna’s “Hold.” It opens with what sounded like a fart–not one of those moist buttock-flappers that you might hear on The Howard Stern Show, but a tight, dry toot, the kind of fart your mother might cut in church. I asked Charles about what this fart sound was and he said it’s the “beat,” created by a “human beatboxer,” and not flatulence. Who knew? Then came Lifesavas’ “Me,” which was almost… music. The song opens with an actual, identifiable musical instrument: Someone is playing the piano! Then, unfortunately, the song proper started, a different human beatbox started farting away, and the piano was almost drowned out.

Oh, hey, we’re running out of space. My final duty as your hiphop columnist is to mention some “fat” shows coming up this week. Lifesavas will be performing with their pianist–I hope–at Chop Suey on Thursday, May 13. In fact, let’s hope only the pianist shows up. Friday, Cool Nutz performs at Premier. I didn’t listen to his CD, but I read through Cool Nutz’s press materials and all I have to say is that this man has a very high opinion of his own talent. He is, he tells us, “the epitome of creativity.” (It rhymes but is it true?) And Tuesday, May 18, John Kerry and other hiphop fans will pour into Chop Suey to see DJ Spinna play a free show, complete with pre-recorded fart effects.

Editor’s note again: You see what we’re left with here? Our old hiphop columnist ran off to be in an Eminem cover band, and Dan “I can write about anything in a half hour or less” Savage forces us to let him fill in. Do you have a strong voice in your writing and think you know more about local/national hiphop and can write better than both our editor and Charles “scholar nigger” Mudede? Mail in a cover letter about yourself and clips of your writing to Savage Knows @#%$ About Hiphop, c/o The Stranger, 1535 11th Ave, third floor, Seattle, WA 98122. Now. Please.