Clawfinger frontman Zak Tell wrote the song in 1991 as a 20-year old, wanting to spread an anti-racist message. Tell listened to early
hip hop groups including
Public Enemy,
A Tribe Called Quest and
De La Soul growing up, and when writing "Nigger", said, "I was angry and I was slightly confused. I didn't think about what I was 'allowed' to say or not." Historian Todd M. Mealy, in his book
The N-Word in Music: An American History, described the message of "Nigger" as "a declaration that the word is and always will be a racial slur, and that Blacks on any continent should refrain from saying it regardless of the connotation." The provocativeness of Tell's lyrics was influenced by
punk rock bands like the
Sex Pistols and the
Dead Kennedys. Tell continued to combine humour, metal music and what he called "lyrics with a big middle finger" on "The Faggot in You" and "Right to Rape" from the band's 2005 album
Hate Yourself with Style. Tell said in 2005, and again in 2019 that he would not write the song the same way nowadays because "there is a different political climate and more
political correctness than in the 90s. This song would certainly bring us more trouble today than it did back in 1993." == Retirement ==