Such a long lived debate. The phoenix rose recently when Tom Hanks’ son Chester Hanks brought it back to life. After garnering backlash for his use of the N-word, the rapper — who goes by the name Chet Haze — explained why he refuses to stop saying it.
“The majority of ya’ll are not going to get this because the history is still so fresh in our country,” he explained. “But hip hop isn’t about race. It’s about the culture you identify with.”
In addition to posing his argument, Haze also wrote a lengthy caption, explaining that he slings around the infamous term because to him, it’s a form of spreading “love” and expressing a sense of brotherhood among all:
If I say the word nigga I say it amongst people I love and who love me. If I say “fuck yall hatin ass niggaz” it’s because that’s really how I felt at the time. And I don’t accept society getting to decide what ANYBODY can or can’t say. That’s something we call FREE SPEECH. Now I understand the older generation who grew up in the Jim Crowe era might have strong feelings against this. And that’s understandable… But what I’m saying is this is 2015… And even tho we are still far from where we need to be and black people are still being literally KILLED by a RACIST and fucked up system… We have also reached a point where the word can no longer have a negative connotation if we so choose. And who is to say only black people can use it? The way I see it, it’s a word that unifies the culture of HIP-HOP across ALL RACES, which is actually kind of a beautiful thing. It’s a word that can be used out of camaraderie and love, not just exclusively for black people. What’s the point in putting all these built up “rules” about it. It’s time to let go. You can hate me or love me for it, but can’t nobody tell me what I can or can’t say. It’s got nothing to do with trying to be a thug. It’s about the culture of the music. And that’s all I have to say about that (no pun intended) lol. It’s all love. Some people will get it, some people won’t. Either way, Ima keep living my life however the fuck I want. ALL LOVE
He has since deleted his account. Guess the heat got too hot for this emcee.
Leave a Reply