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Former Death Row Records boss Suge Knight landed himself in a mess of controversy earlier this week when he told TMZ that he would rather be called a ni**er rather than African-American. Knight’s opinion led the gossip site to put a poll in the post asking whether Black people should be called African-American or ni**as. Well, that didn’t sit well with Public Enemy frontman Chuck D and he had a few choice words for TMZ and Suge Knight.

Chuck D does agree that African-American isn’t a proper term to describe Black Americans because technically actress Charlize Theron is African-American. However, Chuck D says the n-word is too connected to a history of blood, lynchings, and oppression to just be thrown around the way it is. “Being called Black in America is the struggle to keep us moving and breathing over bloody water. Being a Nig**r or [Ni**a] without the context of history is like drowning in bloody water, dragging down those yet knowing to swim.”

As a matter of fact, Chuck D believes that any rapper who uses the epithet in a song more than three times is just being lazy and shows a lack of creativity. So these young rappers better get on their jobs because they use the n-word all of the time, which means they need to get more creative with their wordplay.

What do you think about the n-word debate? Sound off.

Chuck D: Don’t Believe Suge Knight’s N-Word Hype  was originally published on theurbandaily.com