“You know what's my true love? THAT N***A S**T”
-Big Pun
The late Big Pun is a great artist that had one song that has bothered me for years. The song was simply titled “N***a S**t.”
I was just unsettling to me that a Puerto Rican rapper with such respect for the game would extol “n***a s**t” as his true love, especially with all that there is to like about Black people.
Then I thought about it and realized that…everybody seems to love that “n***a s**t.” How do I know this?
Just look at the headlines – “Young Jeezy Not Stabbed; 3 Others Were At Party With Ludacris, Estelle, JD.” Well, at a party with such a wealth of talent and actual wealth, why would three people be stabbed up in the V.I.P. section? If they are a V.I.P., why are they stabbing people?
That’s that “n***g s**t.”
We talk about how we hate it, but we secretly want to see some real good, juicy, ignorant “n***a s**t” to go down to give us all a reason to shake our heads side to side in utter shame. We need something to converse, right?
I do it to from time to time.
But, here is the problem.
That “n***a s**t” is fare too often synonymous with Hip-Hop music and culture. God bless the dead, but Dolla’s slaying – however tragic – was not because he was a rapper. It was over some “n***a s**t” as far as I can tell from the reports. AllHipHop.com and other media report on these incidents, but outsiders take these write-ups as a factual statement about the Hip-Hop Nation. (Like, Bill Clinton getting his d**k sucked in the White House wasn't deemed political s**t, was it?)
We, as a community, don’t help matters. There just doesn’t seem to be any expulsion policy in Hip-Hop (unless you snitch). But, foolishness seems to be rewarded. You can really come up off of “n***a s**t” these days. MC Hammer has a reality show that’s catching a bit of flack for not having enough drama. What they mean is “Hammer, we would like more ‘n***a s**t’ if you don’t mind.” Diddy’s “Making The Band” series gave us plenty “n***a s**t” and so have others like shows from Flavor Flav and Keyshia Cole. (No shots to Diddy, Keyshia or Flav. To the credit of Rev. Run, he’s made a franchise off showing some functional familial interactions.)
So-called “n***a s**t” is nothing exclusive to Black people and crude, uncouth behavior exists in all races color and creeds. It’s also not a wholly Hip-Hop phenomenon. We don’t have a name for boorish White people called “Honkie s**t” or complimentary insults for Asians called “ch**k s**t.” “I love mayonnaise sandwiches, yo! That’s that ‘Honkie s**t, son.” SMH.
Finally, this opinion pieces is no disrespect to Big Pun, because everybody loves that “n***as s**t.”
I just wish they loved Hip-Hop and Black people just the same.
(One love to Big Pun. Please don’t make it seem like there is anything but love for the late, great Christopher Rios. R.I.P. to Dolla.)
PS: Here is some really good “n***a s**t” I just saw in the rumors section:
Good Guy aka Everyman is a columnist on AllHipHop.com and his columns appear every Thursday or when he sends them over. Of course his views are not necessarily that of AllHipHop.com.
