Roots Archives Forum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWUmYHBZCug

now, first of all apologies if anyone finds this post crass or distasteful, but as everyone on this site seems to be upful and open-minded i think we can probably discuss this without a slanging match breaking out...

twice in this song, first at 0:49 and again at 2:51, it appears to me that Welton Irie says something like "a dutty nigga comment, dem a pass dem remarks"

now, i would expect the n-word being thrown around by some contemporary hip-hop artists, but this tune was released 1978 (i think) so it seems somewhat strange to me. it seems to be rather out of place and unusual as i have not heard this word very much at all used in reggae. the only other time that immediately springs to mind is big youth "every nigger is a star" but i think that was released in the mid 80s.

of course, i may be mistaken. but i think it is strange and unusual, and something of a cultural anachronism if mr. irie is really saying what i think he's saying.

thoughts?

peace

joel

unorthodoxconqueror wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWUmYHBZCug

now, first of all apologies if anyone finds this post crass or distasteful, but as everyone on this site seems to be upful and open-minded i think we can probably discuss this without a slanging match breaking out...

twice in this song, first at 0:49 and again at 2:51, it appears to me that Welton Irie says something like "a dutty nigga comment, dem a pass dem remarks"

now, i would expect the n-word being thrown around by some contemporary hip-hop artists, but this tune was released 1978 (i think) so it seems somewhat strange to me. it seems to be rather out of place and unusual as i have not heard this word very much at all used in reggae. the only other time that immediately springs to mind is big youth "every nigger is a star" but i think that was released in the mid 80s.

of course, i may be mistaken. but i think it is strange and unusual, and something of a cultural anachronism if mr. irie is really saying what i think he's saying.

thoughts?

peace

joel

I can't really be of much use, because I'm not really 100% sure what he's saying in context. Is he calling someone else the 'n word', or is he talking about some time he was racially abused? I'd assumed that it was the latter, but listening to it again, I don't know.

Off the top of my head, the only other 'n-bomb' I can think of in roots reggae is Steel Pulse's 'one n*gger the less' line in the song 'Ku Klux Klan'...

yeah i didn't think too much about the context. i guess you're right, he could be talking about being abused by someone else. i guess that would make a little more sense given the era of the song.

Dropping the N-Bomb, as you call it, is not really all that uncommon or strange in 70's JA music. The Big Youth tune you refer to is from the 70's, not 80's. Nothing to be surprised about, really.

There are quite a few songs that have that word or variants of it. I can't think of any examples though right now. It is fairly rare in reggae compared to hip hop. The lack of the use of this word in reggae is one of the reasons I like reggae and dislike hip hop. There are 2 songs in my music library that have the word in their title, I know that as I have replaced the word with stars.

I was surprised when I first heard it too. It is said in quite a few songs though. I can only remember 2 right now.

Jacob Miller - Tenement Yard

Dreadlocks can't live in privacy
Anything him do, old nigga see

Peter Tosh in The Wailers - Get Up Stand Up

Don't be a nigger in your neighborhood
I don't think that should be very good

It seems it's usually used pretty matter-of-factly, not like a dis or anything particularly negative. Just a word that was in use at the time, not as some sort of 'bomb' or statement intended to shock.

star wrote:I was surprised when I first heard it too. It is said in quite a few songs though. I can only remember 2 right now.

Jacob Miller - Tenement Yard

Dreadlocks can't live in privacy
Anything him do, old nigga see

Peter Tosh in The Wailers - Get Up Stand Up

Don't be a nigger in your neighborhood
I don't think that should be very good

You know, I'd completely missed those! Didn't hear the 'n-word' there at all - and I must have listened to those songs several tens of times!

I'm aware that in Jamaica, 'pickney' (or 'pickaninny') isn't considered a racial slur, and you hear that quite often in reggae. That raises eyebrows sometimes in other countries, I think...

(because over here, calling a black kid a 'pickney' would be about as nasty as calling him a 'niglet')

Also another thought here...

Were they using the word in the sense that Chris Rock made famous perhaps?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3PJF0YE-x4

star wrote:I was surprised when I first heard it too. It is said in quite a few songs though. I can only remember 2 right now.

Jacob Miller - Tenement Yard

Dreadlocks can't live in privacy
Anything him do, old nigga see

!!!

i hear it now. i thought the lyric was "anything him do, all near gossip"