Your zoning off these two particular words is very problamntic for me. Yes, NWA blew it up. So what? That means white/suburb kids got into it and assocaited it with hip-hop. (And which NWA album did it, by the way) And after the door was broken down and that sort of rap sold, depending on your perspecitve, it made other rappers open up to their true lagnuage or adpot the language. (And I think everyone, including myself will have to admit that some of the blowing up of the language is just because it sells and can be considered a pre-requiste for some material.) But I don't like the way you've narrowed blame for the word down. Now, you said maybe Too $hort was talking that way before, and yes, he had songs like "Blowjob Betty", "Invasion Of The Flat Booty Bitches" and "She's A Bitch" from 83-85, when he was selling tapes out of trunks. (And this was before hardcore was really even a genre so where did he get that shit from? Even if you say he was all based off of The Mack and Dolemite, he still got it from somewhere way before NWA, and it sold huge local quanties as such.) And after NWA a lot of artists, especiallly on the West specialized in all types of profanity who weren't particularly famous or rich for it. I think that was really Compton's Most Wanted, it's just that NWA opened the door for MC Eiht to talk the way he wanted to, and still not get rich off it, for that matter. But the language was used by other rappers too - Ice T and Schoolly D jump to mind. But as Thought said, no one had cursed so much on record until NWA. Now here's the tough part: I will tell you that these words were totally common in many circles before NWA. I mean, Richard Pryor was famous for the same shit, so it's wasn't like it hadn't been heard in public before, either. But with artists like Pryor and NWA, I belive they got the language from somewhere, and that was real life. I know for a fact that can be real life. Problem is, you and I can argue about how common that was and how often it was used, and who used and what it meant till we both drop dead, and it makes no difference, cause those are individual communites and experinences. But I think you're putting all the responsibility of the issue onto NWA (and the Geto Boys, too) is stupid. You may have gone through your "AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted / Whut The Album" phase, but sorry, for a lot of people I know that was no phase before or after. Also, sorry, but I belive words are just words. I could say more, but I think this is good enough for now. And I will never pay attention to or care about how much an artist like Black Thought uses bitch in an interview or songs more than I would any other word. Sorry.