I agree with Doja Cat (this may be the only time you ever see me say that). This song is super offensive, because to so narrowly define something that’s so basic across America and that so many people can authentically define differently. How do you leave out the berries? No blueberries, no blackberries, no raspberries? What kind of a fruit salad is this? One I’m offended by, that’s for sure, and I don’t even like berries that much. I like my fruit salad simple. But if you’re gonna go out there and teach kids what a fruit salad is, let’s mix it up and put more ingredients in it.
Who are the Wiggles to do that? Who gave them that authority?
Rightfully so, Doja Cat tells us on her Tik Tok that she’s more offended by the song Fruit Salad by the Wiggles, which teaches children how to make a fruit salad and lists bananas, grapes, apple slices, and melons as the only fruit salad ingredients, than by Nas’ “diss” in his new song Ultra Black. HiphopDX (sorry, I’m old, and I stopped watching BET when it was bought out by ViaCom) tells the story that Nas chose to mention Doja Cat as THE example of not ultra Black because of her decision to show her feet to Nazis on some racist websites. It’s extra questionable for him to name her, because she’s also biracial, raised by her white Ashkenazi mom.
So, who gets to decide how “ultra” our Blackness is? What about the woman who has one parent who’s white Ashkenazi, and one parent who is descended from chattel slavery, and proudly celebrates both Rosh Hashana and Juneteenth? Is she more or less Black than an Ethiopian Jew? How about than a first-gen American Sudanese person who speaks English with a British accent and has no Black friends or family in America, votes with the Republican party, and states all the time that he’s Sudanese-American, not Black? Blackness cannot be defined so narrowly. It’s like so many other things in the US… we know what it is and isn’t when we see it, and there are some things that are questionable. But you can’t take away a person’s heritage just because they do something you don’t like. Especially, in my opinion, when you’re someone who lost the right to define ultra-anything when he forgot how to treat Black women with the respect and integrity we ALL deserve in the first place. Cuz really, Nas, you couldn’t get through a whole song without sh*tting on Black women? Is it okay because you’re taking away her Blackness, and if she’s not really Black, it’s okay to denigrate her? No. No, Nas, it’s not.
Nas, let’s talk for a second. In the music industry, you’ve been around for a while. You could very easily be like a grandpa. Pushing aside any problematic Black grandfather tropes, “Pop” teaches. We do the community thang. Look at her like she cray, make that face, and pull her under your wing. “We don’t do that here” keeps it all in the family. Black women in hip hop need our “Ultra Black” men to pull us up, not push us down, and not by pushing further down any other woman—biracial, not Black at all, or whatever. If Doja Cat wants to start denying her own Blackness, that’s one thing, but until we get to that point, it’s not up to you. Are you Ultra Black enough to claim it without telling people who you decide is not? Are you Ultra Black enough to recognize Blackness even when someone’s “White side is showing”?
Separately, from one Black and Jewish woman to another, Doja Cat, honey? We don’t do that here. They don’t need to see your feet. Let’s sip some tea, not make other folks spill theirs, ‘kay? I’ll put a pot on, and we’ll make some real fruit salad and decide whether we’re a cat or a cow today, and the whole thing can go on Tik Tok.
