I Am Nobody's Nigger

Powerful!

Amazing...Just Brilliant! Thank you for this post~

Harry Allen, Media Assassin for Public Enemy loves this track and told me about it. It's great Brotha!

Respectful + conducive ...Reaching wider minds as ever!

Interesting to read this today because yesterday i read this http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=41221

@nstarbeats: +1

Greg , as always words of a sage. lyrics IMO are spot on . i'm coming from a polar angle
I was black, then i wasn't . I was half-caste, then i wasn't. What am i ! please tell me, the people with the authority

Mr I haven't got a clue as he has lived in a all white environment
which has got severe racist undertones which has raised it ugly head
and i'm gonna have to deal with again... 35yrs later *rolls eyes.

Big shouts from Mazoulew Recordings!!

Bravo! Obviously reminds me of THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED.... would love to hear this with a equally powerful delivery...

Amazing

Great to hear such poignant social commentary here in 2012. I managed and produced the Ruthless Rap Assassins, who released 2 albums for EMI back in 1990/91 – I think you’d appreciate what they had to say, so I’ve linked some stuff below. They certainly highlighted the issues of their time, just as you have done here.

I think you’ve brought up a key question for the black community to ponder. I’ve been thinking about exactly this in recent months, but, as a white guy, this isn’t a question I could, or should, attempt to answer. There’s a lot of confusion as to why a word non-blacks can’t say without risking prosecution is freely used in rap lyrics. I personally understand why, in this case, what is acceptable for some isn’t for others, because I know how this all played out historically, but your poem shows us that we’re at another point in time, when what might have been right in the past may now be wrong.

Only a few days ago I uploaded a piece onto my blog, having felt the need to comment on the current debate / confusion surrounding racism, and hopefully giving some historical perspective. You can read it here:
http://www.gregwilson.co.uk/2012/01/confused-misused-and-in-the-dark/

The Rap Assassins recorded a track called ‘That’s My Nigger’ in 1990, which could be regarded as a forerunner to your own poem, reflecting the difficulties with the word and its usage a generation ago:

Hear it on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/YWmiLNsMJ70
Words:
http://www.rapassassins.f9.co.uk/lyr_nigger.htm

I should also mention the track ‘And It Wasn’t A Dream’, which provides a veritable history lesson and was regarded as a seminal UK Rap track of the time, with the lyric acclaimed as the best by a British artist. It’s a heartfelt ode to the previous generation, and their naïve belief that emmigrating to England in the 50’s and 60’s would bring them a better life:

See video on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/2G6Lzm5SZSg
Words:
http://www.rapassassins.f9.co.uk/index.html

Finally, another lyric that reads as poetry – their 2nd best-known track, which deals with institutional racism, ‘Justice (Just Us)’:

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMZYhyiJxKk
Words:
http://www.rapassassins.f9.co.uk/index.html

They we’re recently named as a ‘Catalyst Band’ in The Guardian – artists who had a big influence on what followed, although they weren’t commercially successful at the time:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jul/21/catalyst-bands-ruthless-rap-assassins

Sorry to hijack with a bunch of links, but I feel that it’s necessary for people to consider the bigger historical picture in order to gain a fuller understanding of contemporary issues – to know the future first you must know the past.

Respect for what you’re saying.

Greg

I don't think Hip Hop is the target here. Racism stems from fear, and fear is irrational. The racist does not operate with reason or sense, simply because fear has taken over threatening the very existence of the racist. I think we are allowed to be angry with racism and intolerance. When a man acts this way, personally I want to shout at him so maybe he would hear me in amidst the white noise of stupidity.

I have to disagree with the first comment, I think this is perfect. Hushed tone to contrast that harsh edge you can get with hiphop just emphasises your meaning. Beautiful

I liked the notion, and all that you said was true and real. But I'm afraid for an angry poem it was too hushed in tone. Some passion is needed here.

@intheecoknow: You write "My point was to express my dismay at your brief, unelaborated comments, which managed to insult without being critical. My prejudice is only against your manner of dismissal. Criticism should be thorough in its reasoning; and when not, perhaps only in the case of well-meant words of encouragement."

Well my comments, while perhaps less elaborate than yours are far superior to the cliched puffery of the great majority of 'right on' positive comments. Calling something doggerel is in fact a fairly detailed criticism - check the word on wikipedia - that says it all for me.

Further to the rest of your last comment I read something along the lines of "If you can't say something pleasant then say nothing at all" which seems an odd maxim for literary criticism.

@jon Hartley 1: This'll be my last comment, as i do not wish to aimlessly grafitti this poems comments list. Afterall the pages main purpose is not as a discussion forum, but as a platform for the dissemination of music and word.

I admit, that my judgement of 'different [...] poetic background[s]' was perhaps making too swift an an assumption.

My point was to express my dismay at your brief, unelaborated comments, which managed to insult without being critical. My prejudice is only against your manner of dismissal. Criticism should be thorough in its reasoning; and when not, perhaps only in the case of well-meant words of encouragement.

My allusion to poetry ' not written for the literary scenes critics' sought your attention as to the poems potential audiences. This poem, while not managing to move you, has moved many others. To describe it as doggerel, I thought, only caused me to think of you as a bit mean with your words, more keen to cut the people down for whom your appreciation is absent, rather than to pay homage to those for whom your appreciation is certain.

To be honest, @Write at home has put it far, far better than I (and perhaps righted the potential assumption some may have taken from my own appraisal, that I myself thought the poem unliterary and singular in its audience; I thought it strong in its sense of poetry, and relevant to so many); he asserted that this is 'not writing that can be pigeon-holed at all'.

All I may add is that I enjoyed the poem. I hope that you may, like Anton Ego in DisneyPixar's 'Ratatouille', may find more words for especial expressions of praise rather than for disapproval and disdain.

@intheecoknow: I don't know what you mean by my exceedingly different poetic background. This, like "producing a poetry for the consumption of the literary scenes critics" and "Had it been written for the lit crit crowd" seem to indicate a prejudice you have of me. Isn't the wrong of prejudice a central theme of the poem, or is that another thing that I apparently, (though how you would know is a mystery?) 'hastily' misinterpreted?

No. My criticism of this poem is not bound to a preference for any particular tradition in poetry. I've never had any formal tutoring in poetry in my life. My criticism is based on the poems failure to move me, to deliver a new and resonant way of expressing an old truth with old words. This stuff isn't even original. Argument over RAP or HIP HOP use of the term 'Nigga' isn't new to me.

You mention that it is influenced by 'RAP' , so then should I view it as a simple parody? Well if so, we could start discussing the merits of parody for a while too...

I'm an older poet and I love this piece. It has energy, the real pressure of feeling, interesting enjambements, intriguing rhythmical and rhyming effects, and good strong flow. It takes on a difficult subject and teaches me something new about it. It is light years away from doggerel. Like the writer it is not writing that can be pigeon-holed at all- one thing it does is show how we're all the result of many influences. This is an important theme and supremely apt after the Stephen Lawrence trial. Someone who tries to insist this is not poetry is doing the literary equivalent of saying 'this doesn't belong here', and we know from the Lawrence tragedy where that attitude leads. A wise man once said to me that poetry is the 'music of expanding human thought' - it will alter and develop as we do. Good writers of both genders, all races, and all sexualities, have always opened new ground. Great stuff!!

reading more work by thi intersting poet.

@ Jon Hartley , I'm afraid Mr Hartley that your comment is fairly ill advised. Mr Atta's poetry, as the Guardian article concerning this poem suggests, takes an over-arching influence from RAP; and of course this poem alludes to Public Enemies, big players in the past in this genre. Hence your comment appears ill-informed as it comes to this poem with only your own exceedingly different poetic background. This is not a Poundian or Yeatsian inspired piece of work. Its rhythms while perhaps vaguely reminiscent of some of Ginsberg's poetry does not hit at producing a poetry for the consumption of the literary scenes critics.

Bring to it the vibe and rhythms of say public enemies and the poem comes to life, borrowing from these streams for its sound. Stephen Lawrence's death and the trial of his killers affected the whole nation, but even more so, gave non-white and white backgrounded people alike food for thought. To address the issue in the medium of rhythmically adapted poetry seems apt. By this, it can find, in particular, one of the audiences it was written for. Had it been written for the lit crit crowd, it would not have.

To describe it as 'doggerel' unfortunately reveals too much about yourself rather than revealing anything about the poem it vies to hastily pass comment over.

@The Swordsman: I'm aware of that but notwithstanding your point the poem is still doggerel. I notice practically all the comments are positive in the extreme, but I suspect many only in deference to the subject rather than the style. How anyone can call a poem that jars on so many levels brilliant is beyond me.

@Jon Hartley 1: There are other poetic techniques such as syntactical patterning and anaphora, and even the odd rhyme. Your comment could be applied to any kind of free verse.

Just read the Guardian article about you. this really is so on point, and moving. Also "young black and gay" speaks volumes to all, especially those who need to hear it most! keep it up!

real talk!!!

Powerful and moving

I appreciate the sentiment but as a poem this is absolutely terrible. It's nothing but extremely clumsy prose with a ragged right hand margin. Not one single memorable line.

A Swedish Rap Metal band called ClawFinger also had a similar stance in the Early 90's - opending lyrics from song called..erm.. Nigger:
Godd@mn my man you see I can't understand
Why you wanna say Nigger to your brother man
Taking black pride then you call yourself a Nigger
Don't bring yourself down cos it just don't figure
Take a look at yourself and your history
You don't look like a godd@mn Nigger to me
It's a negative world and the white man made it
Gave you a name to dominate and trade it
Making blood money of his very own race man
And all of this because the colour of your face man....

Nail on the head, Dean! Roger

15,670 and still counting

Puiblic Enemy were a civil rights movement in their own right.

thanks so much for this.