Bosstumes No. 1 – Breaking Bad

BOSSTUMES – noun. Poorly executed costumes with swag.

Photo by Niklas Rahmel

“Sitting around, smoking marijuana, eating Cheetos and masturbating do not constitute ‘plans.’” – Walter White

Ditch the bitch?

Photo credits to rihannafentyforum.com

Ali Lines discusses the use of loaded words in the music industry today.

I’m a bad bitch, no muzzle. (Minaj, Nicki, Pound The Alarm, 2012)

White girl team full of bad bitches. (Azalea, Iggy, My World , 2011)

You are now-now rocking with, will.i.am and Britney, bitch. (Spears, Britney, Scream & Shout, 2012)

On September 2nd 2012, Kanye West mused on his twitter whether the term ‘bitch’ was now acceptable in the world of hip-hop, and whether the word now had positive connotations – “Is it ok to use bitch as long as we put BAD in front of it? Like you a BAD BITCH” – positive enough at least that he considered it a term of endearment when creating the track “Perfect Bitch” for his now pregnant girlfriend Kim Kardashian. The question is: can ‘bitch’ ever really be acceptable in the music world?

Notable parallels are drawn between the positive re-branding of the word ‘bitch’ and the reclamation of the word ‘nigger by black artists. As a derivative of the Spanish/Portuguese word ‘negro’, ‘nigger’ was originally used to describe African slaves shipped out to American colonies in the early 17th century. In its early days, the word carried little weight and was used as a simple descriptor. Its impact remained fairly neutral up until the mid 19th century; however, after the civil war and the abolition of slavery in the United States, the word gained an altogether more negative, derogatory meaning, evocative of a time when white masters still had control over black slaves. With the emergence of the Black Civil Rights movement, and figureheads like Martin Luther King, black activists fought to shake off the ‘nigger’ tag which had become inextricably associated with the inequality between black and white Americans, favouring the term ‘African-American’ instead.

Despite the torment affixed to the term, in the late 80s and early 90s, ‘nigger’ or ‘nigga’ witnessed a rebirth with the increased popularity of gangsta rap and hip-hop, perhaps the best example of this being Compton gangsta-rap outfit “Niggaz Wit Attitude”, and their frequent employment of the word. Many explanations have been given as to why the word became so ubiquitous in rap music – from a shared sense of irony between rapper and audience, to its “undertones of warmth and goodwill – reflecting…a tragicomic sensibility that is aware of black history (Dictionary of Afro-American Slang)”, as well as a desire amongst Afro-Americans to fully reclaim it for themselves, and thus rid it of any negative meaning which white people had previously attached to it. The debate still rumbles on today about whether ‘nigger’ is appropriate to use in popular black culture, with some arguing that no amount of appropriation of can relieve the word of its own violent history.

Regardless of its usage in the black community, decorum surrounding white usage of the word is even less clear – with hip-hop flooding the charts more than ever, white youths have become the biggest consumers of the genre in the US, and this has raised several significant dilemmas: should white people be able to say it when rapping along? Or even use it as a throwaway greeting, as has become increasingly commonplace between friends of different races? Notably, the most famous white MC, Eminem, refused to use ‘nigger’, despite being held dear by his black peers in the rap group D12. Similarly, Deep South artist Yelawolf shares the same view as Eminem – “As a white rapper, it’s always been a big no-no. But as a human being, it’s been an even bigger no-no.” This was in reaction to West Coast female white rapper V-Nasty “dropping the n-bomb” as well as fellow Deep South white rapper Paul Wall’s generous application of the word.

The dispute surrounding ‘bitch’ echoes the issues surrounding ‘nigger’ – a formerly pejorative term that has been reclaimed by one group for their own self-empowerment, but nevertheless, a term whose employment can still divide opinion. ‘Bitch’, simply put, is a female dog, a word which has its roots in the Old Norse language, and emerged in Britain in the 11th century. The word gained its negative connotations in the 14th century according to the Oxford English Dictionary, and the 1811 “Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue” defines ‘bitch’ as:

BITCH. A she dog, or doggess; the most offensive appellation that can be given to an English woman, even more provoking than that of whore.

The word retained its negative association well into the 20th century. Going back to early 90s gangsta-rap, ‘bitch’ became an all-embracing term for a gold-digging, sexually promiscuous, overly-demanding woman, and this was no more evident than on Dr. Dre’s 1992 track Bitches Ain’t Shit, which includes the lyrics “ How could you trust a hoe? Cause a hoe’s a trick. We don’t love them tricks, cause a trick’s a bitch.” As a reaction to this, many 90s black female artists took a determined position against rap’s misogynistic portrayal of women, like Mary J. Blige and Lauryn Hill espousing values of strength and independence, or rappers like Lil Kim and Missy Elliott going on the offensive to belittle male haters – with Kim declaring on her song Queen Bitch “Most of y’all niggaz can’t eat without per diem, I’m rich, Ima stay that bitch”.

The turn of the millennium, saw a shift in the word’s meaning, with a similar re-appropriation of ‘bitch’ by women to that of ‘nigger’ by the black community. The emergence of strong female characters like Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama turned the previous meaning of ‘bitch’ on its head – headstrong, ambitious women, who challenge the male-orientated status quo. This brings us up to date at the start of 2013, where female rappers have stamped their authority on the word, none more so than chart-resident Nicki Minaj, who frequently reminds her listeners that she is a “bad bitch”. Additionally, “thinking man’s rapper” Lupe Fiasco took a strong stance in his 2012 single Bitch Bad, condemning hip-hop’s subjugation of women. Regardless of this, ‘bitch’ remains a core expression in male rappers’ lyrics, but as is the case with white people using “the n-word”, men using ‘bitch’ still leaves a strange taste in the mouth and harks back to the time of Dre’s “tricks and hoes”. This is evident in Big Sean’s first line in recent single Clique – “I tell a bad bitch do whatever I say” – plus points for using the supposedly respectable “bad bitch”, but again hinting at the term’s rather submissive and male-dominant past with his consequent words.

Despite the re-seizure of both ‘nigger’ and ‘bitch’ by black people and women respectively, question marks remain over their widespread usage. Now that both words are recurrent in modern hip-hop, both terms seem to have gained certain legitimacy, which has led to confusion over who can use it authoritatively, and in what context. Asking black and female music stars to completely drop the terms from their vocabularies is almost certainly an impossible task, and raises more important issues of impinging on artists’ freedom of expression. More importantly, as for white people using ‘nigger’ and men using ‘bitch’, both groups have the undeniable human right to freedom of speech, but must understand the damage done when language is used out of context or with malicious intentions, and how it perpetuates the age-old problems of racism and sexism which are out of place in modern society. It seems that Kanye’s musings were correct – the usage of ‘bitch’/’nigger’ is patently not black and white, and the grey area in which it currently resides does not seem to be getting any clearer.