In this episode, the Black Cloud (@AndreCole) gets the last laugh as J (@HipHopTaliban) takes his Jay-Z L like a man as Professor Belk (@abjrphd) joins in to break down Shawn Carter's brilliant piece of HipHop art, 4:44, track by track. Also: 360 record deals, the lost art of sampling, the end of ATCQ?
No Ni--a Pass
When comedian Bill Maher brought in a Black panel to slap his wrists over a joke in which he called himself a “house ni--a,” HipHop heads took note as lifelong ni--a (the word) advocate, ni--a (the word) promoter, and serial ni--a (the word) abuser Ice Cube decided to be HipHop’s ambassador in the spectacle, despite the fact that it is a word he has singlehandedly done more to promote and popularize among white people than anybody.
In this episode, JC (@HipHopTaliban), East Coast Dre (@AndreCole), and the Professor (@abjrphd) tackle the controversy, the history, the pain, the hypocrisy, and the complexities of the most the most explosive word in the English language and HipHop’s most common … and we do jump all over white privilege. So sorry cool non-Black people, no “ni--a passes” will be issued!
We also examine clever uses of the word in HipHop; Pay tribute to Prodigy; Whether Jay-Z will actually evolve as an artist; and how grown HipHop heads deal with the trolls!