DX: I know you have kids yourself, how do you talk to them about the stuff they see on TV and hear on the radio?
NO: I’m always frank with my kids and because there’s been full disclosure about life with them, the things they see don’t confuse them. But it’s not a matter of confusion. The problem is a matter of lifestyle. It’s not that my daughter doesn’t know that it’s inappropriate to carry on as a hoe bag and a slut. The lifestyle right now if she’s going to fit in…she spends the majority of her time amongst her peers, not with me. I’m stay at home dad because I work from home. That notwithstanding, the majority of her time is with her peers. In her peer group, there’s a certain lifestyle. If she’s going to be successful at socialization, she has to navigate that lifestyle. Part of that lifestyle is the music and the backdrop it creates. As much as I’m trying to be the model for her, it does not change the fact that the streets are there.

My son is a good young man, but he’s still seduced by the lure of what’s outside. It’s not so much the music that’s the problem, it’s the lifestyle it portrays and that the lifestyle is seductive. You have youngins that want to act as if, even though they’re not.

DX: Speaking on that, people trying to be something they’re not, was that part of the inspiration for “What Up My Wigger Wigga?”
NO: “What Up My Wigger” was just straight up and down “don’t call me nigger,” fuck that. You wanna call me nigger, you think I’m your nigga, fucking white boy, Chinese, whatever the fuck you is, don’t call me that. If you want to call me nigger, this is what you is. Oh you don’t like that? Well if it ain’t no good for you, it ain’t no good for me. Sly & The Family Stone said it best: [singing "Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey"].

I put that song together so I could give people the tools they need to speak against that. You don’t even have to have a discussion, just put the song on.

DX: How do you reconcile between that song and the fact that a lot of black folks use the N word?
NO: I don’t think it’s okay, self degradation is never good. We’re the only race that does this type of shit - that embraces the disgraces that we’ve experienced. You know where it starts from? Being in slavery situations and having to make due. We always try to make due for some shit. We can’t eat the good part of the meat so we eat the chitlins and the hog maws and shit like that the fuckin' pigs feet and pigs knuckles. Now, 100 years later, we’re still eating it like it’s a delicacy. Ox tails and cow tongue, what kinda shit is that? Parts of the animal that we shouldn’t even be dealing with. People eating chitlins, chitlins are the lower intestine. People are calling themselves niggas, and that’s the lower intestine of the language. And I think it’s incorrect and we shouldn’t be doing it. Have I used the word "nigga" in a conversation? Yes, I’ve done it. I’m not Dudley Do Right, I’m a regular dude. But it’s a point where you realize the shit is wrong. It ain’t no good. I’m telling you it ain’t what’s up. I’m saying I know what’s bad about it. Calling somebody nigga, yeah it sounds good, until you realize you’re embodying a lifestyle that’s detrimental.

DX: So in your opinion, how do we change things? I look at the lifestyle in the industry and where I live in Vegas, it seems like we as black people will break our necks to degrade each other. We’ll mention the first amendment, but if you look at the Jewish or Asian community, they don’t have that type of degradation. So how do we break that cycle?
NO: Somebody has to have the testicular fortitude to stand up and stay standing, and even when they get knocked down, keep standing for your ideals. Yo Anthony, this is bigger than the interview, what I’m saying to you right now. This is man-to-man. If you look at the condition of the people and you know that this shit is fucked up and a lot of us are duped into thinking things are all good, and you’re in a position of an opinion maker and a tastemaker by virtue of being in a position to disseminate information as a medium that is looked to as a moral compass in this music biz and black culture, it is your duty as an individual to stand for that. Does that mean that you gotta fuck up your job and do stupid shit? No. Does that mean that you should be consistent in doing what you can from the place and the space in which you occupy to further the fight to civilize the minds of the black man and woman? Yes! It is your duty and your responsibility. And if you don’t do it, you’re the reason why we’re not where we’re supposed to be. Not the dude on the block selling drugs. He’s not responsible. You are. Because you are wise to what needs to be done, you’re aware, you’re cognizant, and you’re doing nothing. Empathy is the biggest crime of humanity. Ambivalence is the biggest crime of humanity. The decision to do in the face of overwhelming odds. It’s a movement, it’s a family, it’s a team. What I did started with me sitting in my house in my draws pissed the fuck off. And being a man and speaking about it consistently. And making sure there was nothing in my life that somebody could say, “Yeah, but you do that.” Nah brother, you ain’t got that on me. My job is worth it, my people are worth it. They’re worthy. Your life means nothing over the value of the people. Continued on page 3 »