Sometimes an optimistic brother like myself gets pessimistic. You know, feeling stuff like, do any of the discussions we have about the N-word have any hope of changing the way things are going in terms of its usage?

That entity which I love, hip hop, has effectively made it an uphill, if not impossible, battle for anyone who would like to see people take a strong stance against calling oneself a nigger/nigga (it may feel different to use one or the other, but they're still the same word). Heck, I feel stronger about the use of that word than a lot of people, but I'm actually really soft. From my coming to this site, you can see I listen to the Roots, Talib Kweli, Common, D'Angelo, etc. - all people who put out recorded material in which they unconstructively use the word. When I say unconstructive use, I mean compared with a song like "Mr. Nigga" by Mos Def, but obviously I'm not excusing him because he's the same as the others, as is dead prez, Outkast, Erykah Badu, and on and on (ha ha, get it?)... I wanted to mention people like them because it would be a cop-out to talk about Jay-Z, DMX, etc.

All I gotta say is don't use the word if you're not comfortable with its use by suburban white kids, kids in Japan, kids in Africa, kids everywhere. We, the hip hop nation, has legitimized the use of the word, we can't turn back, and hypocrisy cannot last. Me, I'm already asking myself - why should I try to stop a kid who likes hip hop from singing one of his or her favourite songs? It will depress me, but I guess I'm just a sourpuss like that.

The excuses go on and on. For some interesting ones, check out "Sucka Nigga" by Tribe Called Quest, "The Experience" by Goodie Mob, and (brand new Canadian hotness) "Man by Choice" by Kardinal Offishall. Excuses, excuses - "The Experience" would make more sense if Cee-lo didn't use the word in the exact same way any other rapper does.

For more of my thoughts, please go to the archives and search this forum for a post called "dead prez guns". The post started off with another topic, but within the thread, I started a discussion of the group's use of the N-word and got the chance to express a lot of my feelings on the use of the word in general.

To bite another okayplayer's style (who I would acknowledge if I could remember who it is)...

Thank you for reading.