Rapper Kanye West, who has been free with the use of the words “nig*a” and “b*tch” in his music, apparently is having a bit of self-doubt about his of the words in his music.
On Twitter, West engaged in a long soliloquy about the words—or at least as long as the restricted format of Twitter would allow.
“Is it acceptable for a man to call a woman a bitch even if it’s endearing?” he tweeted. ” Has hip hop conditioned us to accept this word? Do we love this word as much as we love the word NIGGA in an endearing way?”
“Is it ok to use bitch as long as we put BAD in front of it? Like you a BAD BITCH,” he asked. “If nigga is such a positive word, why do we feel so uncomfortable for white people to say it, even with a hall pass?”
“I was recently questioned about the use of the word BITCH in my music and initially was offended by anyone questioning anything in my music,” he continued. “Perhaps the words BITCH and NIGGA are now neither positive or negative. They are just potent and it depends on how the are used and by whom?”
“Stevie Wonder never had to use the word bitch to get his point across,” West said, not so humbly comparing himself to one of the greatest songwriters of all time—but acknowledging that on that comparison he might be coming up short.
“I will admit that I sometimes go back an omit cursing from my records. I like to use profanity as a tool and not a crutch,” Kanye wrote.
Kanye may be struggling so much with these questions because of the controversy he raised recently when he released the song “Perfect Bitch,” an ode to girlfriend Kim Kardashian. Though was Kardashian is said to be “honored” by the song and thinks West’s “bitch” takes on a different, positive meaning in “Perfect Bitch,” her mom was reportedly furious that he referred to her daughter with such a derogatory term.
West and Jay-Z’s song “Ni**as in Paris” also led to some uncomfortable moments for actress Gwyneth Paltrow. Paltrow tweeted photos of her attending the Watch the Throne concert in Paris with her best friend Beyonce and Beyonce’s Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland, and she used the caption, “ni**as in paris for real.”
“I’m not tweeting to say what we need and what we don’t…,” Kanye concluded. “I just wanted to think out loud with you guys today…”
