Did they have to?

When does this happen?

Dude, obviously, you're not from the hood/streets and you're not Black.

Let me just keep it real for you.

If you're a cat from the streets like Adonis, that's how you talk.

Rocky/Creed is about people from low class environments.

This isn't the Cosby show.

A guy like Adonis who was in juvie and foster care is gonna say "nigga" when talking to his homies.

I thought Mickey said it once in the first film when he was talking about the man who put a nail in his boxing glove.

After years of exposure to the conversations of the worst people in the world, I am qualified to say that people who use the word nigger use it profusely and casually. It doesn't slip out just once in a while when they're under stress. It occurs in nearly every sentence. Typically, more than once. It's a noun, a pronoun, an adjective, a title, a slur, and an expletive. It even serves as filler, like an um or an er. Ignorant people use language this lazily because they want to impress their equally ignorant peers. They want to demonstrate that they're not guileless or judgmental, because these traits are weak and offensive, respectively. Rather than show some bravery and strive to grow intellectually, they take the path of least resistance, which is to belong. To belong among the ignorant. I'm inexpressibly disappointed when I hear youth talk like this because I know that their parents are not training them to act like grownups. They're not training them to pull up their pants and speak in a manner that builds charisma. These kids are going to grow up to be idiots and criminals. They're going to live in ghettos and spread diseases and, if they're very lucky, cut a platinum rap album.

Nigger is a stupid word. Please, anyone out there who is a screenwriter, don't try to make your story gritty or realistic by adding trite, dumbed down dialogue.