Trinidad James says he isn’t angry at an old white woman filmed using the n-word while rapping along to his 2013 hit “All Gold Everything.” The Atlanta rapper holds a different message for members of a University of Oklahoma fraternity caught on film using the same word in a different context.
“I don’t respect that at all,” Trinidad James told CNN. “What kind of world are we living in here?”
Last week a video of Sigma Alpha Epsilon members chanting a racist song on a school bus surfaced and has since resulted in the removal of the fraternity from the university, according to NPR. The release of another video showing the frat’s “house mom,” a woman named Beauton Gilbow, repeating the n-word over Trinidad James’ music has been seen as a revelation regarding the racist nature of the organization as a whole. Still, James distinguishes the two incidents.
“I’m not going to be that person,” James said.”It’s a rock and a hard place. I can’t be as upset at that lady. I’m upset at the fraternity because what they’re saying is a chant that’s just completely disrespectful to the black race. As far as that lady goes — man, that’s an old lady, man. Let that lady be.”
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James seemed to use the situation as an opportunity to talk about the n-word more generally, and while he hinted that it’s a touchy subject around the country, he suggested that rappers using the word in their lyrics fundamentally changes the dynamic.
“It’s hard to ridicule somebody for something that you continue to use in your music,” James said. “Every (Hip Hop) artist is using the n-word in their music — hit records with the n-word in it. You can’t be upset when somebody says it. You can’t. It’s hard to differentiate when you can use it. If we don’t want the word used and the word holds such a negative connotation, then we shouldn’t use it at all, period.”
James added that he’ll never perform at SAE as a result of the incident. “I don’t want nothing to do with that because that’s ridiculous,” he said. “I feel like anything they do now is just to cover it up and make it look better.”
Still, the former Def Jam artist doesn’t seem ready to stop performing for frats in general.
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“These fraternities are places that us as Hip Hop artists, we come and do amazing shows for these fraternities, like I just did Texas Tech, I just did Texas A&M, Delta Chi, Sigma Chi, and those guys were great,” he said. “And I’ve done a show actually at Oklahoma last year. So to see that that chapter feels that type of way toward the black race, it hurts, man. It sucks.”
