‘Mr. Nigga’ can be found on Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def’s) first solo studio album Black on Both Sides. I heard this track for the first time when I was 18 or so. At that age, you think you’re an adult ’cause that’s how it is in the UK. You really aren’t. I still had a lot of growing up to do. So when it came to this one, I didn’t really pay attention to what Mos Def what saying, but more how many times the N word was said in the track. Why’s that, you might ask. I’m not too sure myself. I guess an over-use of swear words in music was still amusing to me at the time. But then I got older, properly listened, and realised ‘Mr. Nigga’ is one of the realest hip-hop songs ever made. In three verses and its three choruses, the track deals with a topic that is very much relevant today – that being the subtle and not-so-subtle racism in society. Though coming from the perspective of a wealthy Black rapper, the situations are still the same.

The track tells a story of a wealthy Black man who still has to endure the stares, the comments, injustice from the law, mistreatment in America and abroad, all because of the colour of his skin. The instrumental’s great. Led by this flowing groove with some slapping bass and a somewhat cheery piano riff, it skips and hops and sometimes drops out to accentuate what Mos says in some places. But what really sells the song’s message, apart from the lyrics (obviously), is his delivery. The way he portrays the characters he describes by changing his voice, like the annoying flight attendant in the second verse, or when he expresses his loss for words when that same flight attendant asks for a photograph a few moments later. Just all throughout, Mos’ vocal delivery is so engaging and expressive, you can’t help but just nod your head to it, but you really have to take note that he is telling you some very serious stuff here. His admission that he’ll probably be treated the same way, even after having provided for his children or bought his mother a nice new house, doesn’t give much hope for the future either. There’s no happy ending to this track. And as you can see today, 22 years on, not much has changed really.

I like that Q-Tip is included in the track. He doesn’t have a verse. He more backs up Mos with ad-libs and joins him the chorus. I believe that’s due to the fact that the chorus itself is an interpolation of ‘Sucka Nigga’, a track that Q-Tip was on in his A Tribe Called Quest days. That’s all a side note though, needed a way to end this post on a positive. Both tracks are well worth the time.