COLEMAN A. YOUNG (1918 - 1997)
Rapper deifies cusser
by Desiree Cooper
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12/3/97"I'm a profound cusser, and I liked the way Coleman Young used it: well, effective and to the point."
That's the opinion of Detroit rapper The Blackman, or "Black."
The 32-year-old has been performing since 1983. In the early 1990s he and his group Enemy Squad cut "The Riot," which warned of revolution if the situation didn't soon change in the nation's inner cities. In the middle of the song, Michigan Gov. John Engler, champion of privatization and welfare reform, is maligned by a few choice words, while someone in the background screams, "We love you, Coleman Young!"
"Coleman Young was interjected in that song because he was the baddest politician ever," says Black, a black baseball cap pulled down low on his brow. "They're talking now, saying 'The pride is back.' We always had pride in the city. We got it the day Coleman Young was elected."
It's Young's Detroitchismo that makes him one of Black's idols. That and Young's special ability to curse.
"I'll remember him for cussing out (Oakland County Executive) L. Brooks Patterson," laughs Black.
Indeed, Young was an accomplished, unapologetic cusser. Perhaps more than any other trait, it was his proclivity toward profanity which bought him both staunch supporters and rabid enemies.
"I loved his use of language," says Detroit poet Ron Allen. "A friend of mine once told me that a warrior was someone who was not afraid to be who they were. Coleman always impressed me as being someone who would stand up and say, 'I will be who I am regardless of the circumstances.' "
When asked whether he was ever ashamed by Young's word choice, Allen is miffed:
"Of all the things to be ashamed of! Be ashamed at being the murder capital of the world. Be ashamed of having the highest unemployment rate or the highest young, black, male murder rate. Forty-two percent of Detroit kids drop out of high school and we're going to be ashamed because Coleman said 'goddamnit'?"
Quotations chronicles some of Young's most memorable curses. For example, when told by an interpreter that there were many words in Japanese that have different meanings depending on the tone of voice, Young responded: "Oh yes. We have words like that in English, too -- motherfucker."
And when addressing a party of Detroit journalists (for whom he held a healthy contempt) via closed-circuit television from Hawaii, Young opened his remarks with a robust: "Aloha, motherfuckers."
But perhaps his most flamboyant whip of the tongue occurred on national television while he was being interviewed by Judd Rose on ABC's "PrimeTime Live." Even Young felt he had, for once, gone too far.
"The worst thing I did was to allow Rose to provoke me," said Young in Quotations. "I blew up in anger and cursed him when he said, 'The feds say you are corrupt.' I said, 'Who the fuck told you that? I have never heard anybody make that direct charge.' I should have controlled myself then but I was mad and tired at having my city beat up by this guy."
Black, however, felt Young had nothing for which to apologize. "Cursing is often the language that people understand the easiest."
He says that's what makes cursing so effective, and why he sprinkles profanity liberally through his music.
"For me, swearing is a performance vehicle," says Black. "And that's what it was for Coleman, too. He had a little theater in him."
Young would agree with that assessment. Quotations includes a passage from Young himself about why he swore: "Swearing is an art form. You can express yourself much more directly, much more exactly, much more succinctly, with properly used curse words."
That says it all for Black, who all but puts his hand over his heart when speaking of Coleman Young.
"When he's gone," says Black reverently, "I'm going to wave his freak flag really high."
Desiree Cooper is the Metro Times' Editor-at-Large.