Malcolm-jamal-warner-j-cole
Malcolm-Jamal Warner (Wire ATL), J. Cole (Photo by Prince Williams/WireImage)

On the first episode of his new podcast, “Nah…Not All Hood,” Malcolm-Jamal Warner recently revealed that he stopped listening to J. Cole’s music and the reason why.

The veteran actor expressed he has reached a point of “n***a” and “b**ch” fatigue. 

Malcolm-Jamal went on to share that he stopped listening to J. Cole‘s music because of his excessive use of the words.

I’m more against it now because it’s used so gratuitously..it’s used without regard.

At this point, for me, in Hip Hop…I think ’n***a’ and ‘b**ch’ – it should be a moratorium on both of those words in Hip Hop because it’s low-lying fruit.

It’s so easy, everybody f**king does it to the point that it’s corny. 

There are MCs who I love who I cannot listen to anymore cause I can’t…

I love J. Cole, but I had to stop listening to J. Cole cause I got tired of hearing ’n***a’ and ‘b**ch’ every two sentences.

Because he’s proven himself to be such an incredible lyricist…

Watch the clip below. 


Malcolm-Jamal Warner took to his Instagram page to add a footnote to the clip saying he wasn’t singling out J. Cole.

For the record, I was not singling @j.cole out.

His name came up but I also say that my “n***a” fatigue applies to many of my favorite MCs.

When great lyricists who have proven themselves to be mad prolific with their pen game rely on “n***a” and “b**ch,” with such gratuitousness, I find myself tuning out.

We now live in a culture where we have normalized anti-Black messaging in our Black music in a way that we would not allow non-Black folks to sing and rap.

We make anti-Black lyrics sound so dope.

N***a has become such a marketing tool.

It used to be our word in code, but we’ve made it available to the public.

We say we’ve taken the power back, but still get mad when non-Black people use it.

Slowly but surely my folks are replacing “N***a”with “Comrade,” bc in the words of the highly esteemed @drdanielblack, “Why would I borrow a word from someone who hates me when I’m trying to speak love to my brother (or sister)?”

Enough non-Black people s**t on us already.

Do we really need to be s***ted on by our own?

Whether it’s music or tv or film, if it’s not speaking love and upliftment of our people,I don’t have the bandwidth for it.

Let’s stop playing the oppressor’s game. ❤️🤎♥️🤎🙏🏿✊🏿

Do you agree with Malcolm-Jamal Warner about the gratuitous use of “n***a” and “b**ch” in Hip Hop?

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