Since its release in 2005, the ‘n-word’ laden chorus of Kanye West’s Gold Digger has always been a controversial matter, acting as a barometer for acceptable etiquette. When sung at a public occasion, does one sing-along to the explicit chorus in full? Or does one omit its profanity? Would this depend on the racial diversity of one’s immediate company? To compound such taxing considerations, should one also consider one’s own race and determine, on that basis alone, whether to belt out the chorus to Gold Digger in full and at high volume? Such are the eternal riddles which life so characteristically throws at us. As members of the University of New Hampshire’s Alpha Phi sorority showed us, not everyone manages to successfully solve the riddle, and it remains unclear who can say certain words, and when.
But it is context, we are told. Piers Morgan explained this to one of his guests, the Canadian conservative podcast[1]pundit Steven Crowder, reminding him there is no equivalence between using the word in a ‘deliberately racist’ way and in a descriptive or ‘innocent way’, like when in 2018 Masterchef UK’s John Torode sang the chorus of Kanye West’s Gold Digger (incidentally a no.1 hit in the United States and other nations). Here in 2025, Torode has been sacked and only just days after his co-host Gregg Wallace was also sacked for separate allegations of sexual misconduct. The BBC now has the opportunity to ‘refresh’ the Masterchef brand and replace Torode & Wallace with a more acceptably cosmopolitan cast. Despairingly to many, it may be of no surprise that the Masterchef brand has been under sustained attack for its ‘whiteness’, with its finalists being used as a proxy by some to evaluate the show’s deep structural-racism.
It is indispensably true that words have content and context. Context, however, suddenly loses its appeal when intent can be so viciously misconstrued. In the case of Jonathan Friedland’s intent, the former head of communications at Netflix, a descriptive use of the word when listing examples of offensive language at a board meeting was enough for Netflix, who confirmed that Friedland’s “descriptive use of the N-word (italics added) on at least two occasions at work showed unacceptably low racial awareness and sensitivity.” A similar decision was made by Lloyds Bank, when one its managers, Carl Borg-Neal, used the “full word rather than the abbreviation” when providing a descriptive example of offensive language. In such cases it is clearly not about context, or even intent; it is about who can say the word. Piers Morgan recently decided to subject himself to a signature ‘grilling’ by Andrew Neil. When asked about the controversy surrounding many of his guests, Morgan proudly boasts of ‘Uncensored’s’ unedited nature and its deserving popularity. Revelling in how he is hated both by pro-Israelis and pro-Palestinians in equal measure, Morgan defends his platforming of controversial figures and the airing of offensive speech so long as he is present to robustly counter and challenge his guests. One such guest was the aforementioned Steven Crowder, who has often tested the limits of free speech in the United States & Canada. In a move which I am sure was intended to be wholly unironic, Piers Morgan and his team took the decision to censor Steven Crowder’s referential descriptive use of the word on Piers Morgan ‘Uncensored’. Most astonishing was that Crowder was invited on ‘Uncensored’ specifically to discuss the word’s censorship, and its implications regarding free speech.
Though by censoring the word’s utterance, Piers Morgan ‘Uncensored’ acted in accordance with a universally accepted and common practice across the legacy media landscape for more than half a century now. Curiously, in the same timeframe, the genre of rap music has grown to critical and commercial viability on a planetary scale. Rappers, and their fellow rap-adjacent artists (think Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, Rihanna, The Weeknd etc.) have frequently conquered music charts in all nations which track music consumption, whilst dominating the transnational streaming platforms of Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube. In that time, use of the word has proliferated to previously unprecedented levels. Hearing the word in 2025 is a mundane phenomenon. Drake, one of the most popular artists on the planet - contemporarily and historically, uses the word with predictable frequency. While ‘clean’ radio edits are common, modern streaming platforms allow for easy access to ‘dirty’ un-edited song versions and are the default original versions found on singles or albums. Once considered ‘hardcore’, ‘urban’, or ‘alternative’, rap music is now firmly intertwined with and a major constituent of pop music culture. Audibly ubiquitous (what Roger Scruton once called a ‘tyranny’), pop music is heard in restaurants, pubs, bars, gyms, shopping centres. It is heard from radios, cars, phones, advertisements, YouTube videos, TikTok videos, television programming and movies.
Yet while the word replicates itself through the airwaves, its taboo intensifies and an unguarded utterance of the word can result in censorship, cancellation or violence. The word is increasingly considered trauma-laden with its ability to trigger anxiety, panic and PTSD-like symptoms in many within its audible radius (the chorus of Gold Digger is particularly traumatic). This has prompted the decision by some streaming platforms like Netflix and HBO Max to either retrospectively censor expressions of the word or provide trigger-warnings prior to viewing. The trigger-warnings are universally prescribed so that all audiences – even those without said trauma – are provided with a stern warning of the potential harm in the imminent content. But such careful mollycoddling often avoids rap music. No such trigger-warnings apply when YouTubing Kendrick Lamar music videos or streaming one of Drake’s eight multi-platinum studio albums. Stand-up comedians also go uncurbed, like Dave Chappelle’s free use of the word when guest hosting Saturday Night Live to great acclaim in 2016, 2020, 2021 and 2025. But even being one of the most-watched late night talk shows in the US, no censorship was applied or trigger warnings provided. The great controversy arising from these appearances was quite unrelated to race; with Chappelle’s alleged misgendering and ‘deadnaming’ leading to attempts at cancellation.
What matters is who says the word. The word will only continue to grow in prevalence, and Gold Digger will only continue to be sung and imitated by a multi-racial global pop music audience. The word will continue to be imposed with a censorship-apartheid too, where an alleged historic utterance may lead to your sacking seven years later, as with John Torode. This two-tier weaponisation of speech can only continue when we are not willing to openly discuss this word or any other, in good faith, without accusations of deliberate racism, and without censorship.
Darren Gee is London-born and based writer and cultural critic. Follow him on Substack.