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In 2025, Let’s Retire Using Racist Coded Language & Other Problematic Terms to Discuss Music (Op-Ed)
Read the full Billboard essay on how racist coded language has adapted to music discourse in the 2020s.
Late last year, The Cut’s Cat Zhang ran an explainer on the word “khia” — a phrase that exploded in popularity online as longtime left-of-center artists ( Chappell Roan, Tinashe, Charli XCX, etc.) But the numbers are the least interesting thing about Khia and “My Neck, My Back.” Her infectious flow and effusive lyrical ode to cunnilingus and anilingus are key building blocks for the p—y rap subgenre; she and her music have served as an enduring reference point for some of the biggest female rappers of this current class. That’s insane to me.” Last year, Doechii – after smartly introducing her mixtape with a single that uses boom bap to call out the hypocrisy of male rap gatekeepers and fans – wrote on X: “Don’t let these people brainwash you into disconnecting from the soul of hip hop by convincing you it isn’t cool or it’s ‘too deep.’” Nonetheless, in recent months, their mutual conscientiousness – and use of explicitly Black genres like jazz and boom bap — has been perceived as being condescending, preachy and just plain unfun, giving way to the continued use of insulting terms meant to specifically disparage their devotion to hip-hop traditions.
Or read this on Billboard