Sitting down with Stan Ipcus Sean opens up about his “tanning moments,” including the response “Dance (A$$)” has received outside of urban markets, his old school and more.
Did you ever have any racial incidents at school?
I remember one of my friends who was white with red hair, he called me a “nigger” one time, but he didn’t know that it was offensive. And that’s not unusual. A lot of people of different races have said that and thought it was cool, and didn’t mean it in an offensive way. He was like, “Man, I be hearing y’all say it all the time. You’re my best friend.” It was a big thing. I would say it was around the fifth grade or so. And that’s when [we started noticing the difference in our races]. Before, it was like we were just all kids. Then we started realizing the different races, and that we come from different places.I had to tell him that wasn’t cool. And I was with another one of my good friends who went to that school [who was also black], and he was really mad. But I wasn’t really mad. I more so understood. We were educating each other, and letting each other know, “This isn’t right.” Honestly, back then, we didn’t know the harshness of the word, and what that word meant. We didn’t know where it came from. I don’t remember how it was introduced to me. All I know is it became a part of our lingo.
READ: The Tanning Interview w/ Big Sean
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