sure we can. we had to take ownership of the word.
Other people in the past have proven to use the word as a negative label, and black people took the word and redefined it among themselves.
I personally don't use it (it may slip out on a rare occasion or two) and my friends know not to use the word (around me) either.
Not that it really bothers me, but they do it out of respect, since I don't even use the word myself.
It has become more of a mainstream hip hop greeting or term, but that doesn't mean that just anybody can use it, and definitely not anytime they feel like it. If the wrong person says that at the wrong time infront of the wrong people, they might have just started an incident, whether they meant it negatively or not.
but anyway.... Did you guys hear about Mature Link... yadda yadda yadda... insert joke about having a beard here.
Zelda