Have you even listen to the album??? This is the best rapper out there and one of the greatests of all time! I didn't like that he was going to title it Nigger, but the album is a classic! The album touches on so many things that affects not only Blacks, but everyone in this evil christian country!It's not your typical shake your ass and shoot up album! It's much more!
Pelle, I'm with you! This album is crazy I have not been able to stop listening to it. I thought Nas was long gone glad to see him back. Nas is talking about real issues that affect so many people not just those in America but those that wish to come here. Dburt the album is great give it a listen first.
Actually, I was trying to get this album last week but it’s less about the album and more about the mentality behind the original NAMING of the album. I have been following Nas’ career since “Live at the Barbecue” & Main Source. He was billed as the second coming of Rakim but never reached the consciousness of Ra. I will give him a pass on The Firm and Oochie wally (although I really shouldn’t) but since he has always been put under the label of a conscious artist, he went out like the Snoop Dogs and Fifty Cents with trying to drum up feigned controversy with the album. Was it really to make a statement or was it to make a sale? And why does the Black image have to suffer every time a rapper wants to make a buck?.....again, I’ll check out the cd (or is that an mp3 file, ahem..)…but he should still bring "fire" to his colleagues before he goes for Fox....Fox has seen Black on Black minstrelsy & disrespect and decided to join in, now Nas wants to hate?.....Please....time to rise and stop the hypocrisy.
I believe Nas is beyond the shock gimmick thing! He's been around for 16 years! All his ablums has went platnium except his first which went gold! He's at that point in his career where he can just really and truly express himself.
He did the Oochie wally thing which is negative and immature, but whats wrong with giving folks the chance of change? Time and experience changes people. Malcom X was a criminal before he changed and matured!
On just about every ablum he's done he went after his colleagues and the Black communnity for the stupid ish we do! I'm not trying to make him look like an angel, but fox is trying to make him and us look like devils! The whole ablum plays like a novel and stays on the subject of change and justice! If hip hop doesn't need this i don't know what does!
Love it or hate it, entertainment is a game of youth and relevancy and as we witnessed with Janet Jackson in 04' when you are trying to compete with emerging new artists and an ever changing musical medium , the shock game goes up. It should not be this way but we have seen this pattern in entertainment go on for many years. There really was no purpose to Nas wanting to name his album (again, originally) "Nigger"...it's more about been there done that...Nas even had t-shirts printed up when it really is a dated and tired subject-for an alleged conscious artist to WANT to go in that direction was a bit bizarre. People of color are being positioned to look disingenuous when certain Black art forms and businesses routinely disparage Black people/culture but we want to move "our chess piece" when "whitey" does it-c'mon something is wrong. We jumped on Imus but then gave Snoop, NWA, and then more current artists(Lil' Wayne, Jeezy, David Banner, etc) a pass when they have been playing the Black self-disrespect game a hell of a lot longer than Imus...I'm not feeling the inconsistency folks....If we can bring the heat to Fox then Warner Bros, Jimmy Iovine, Viacom, Clear Channel, etc shouldn't be ignored-but they will because a BLACK face (or is that blackface?) is on the product! We have to stop this.....the world is watching.
Will this sh*t ever stop? Once again old ass Desmond is showing us how out of touch he is. By the way, stop telling us that you like HipHop, we realized some time ago that you don't, and if I remember correctly, it was always Starks who understood the "game".
Like others have already stated, the album is incredible, so let's stop focusing on old news and what he was going to name the cd. You're acting like an old, stuffy, panty wearing nag.
unbannable/komrade.....I appreciate ALL types of music and I am quite knowledgeable about the music. Many lower tier Black folk always give skewed answers as to what is "old" so your words are not only inaccurate but display a "section 8" mentality. In the projects...anyone over 35 is old...hell Nas is "old" in your world so again, your words display a great deal of ignorance. I'm talking about bringing pride to Black culture and all you can contribute is foolishness about the "game.".....and your wrong once again about my disliking of hip hop. I grew up listening to the music and I critique COMMERCIAL hip hop.....but Negroes like yourself refuse to acknowledge Murs, MF Doom, Immortal technique, Little Brother, the late Jay Dee and a whole host of other artists that don't get the burn....you also don't acknowledge the underground hip hop and Black Rock that is out here that doesn't fit in or play the "game"....funny how I know hell of lot about the underground and what is "new" for an "old" dude.....and every time you come in here (to a site you allegedly hate) you disprove the very points you try to make.....why don't you visit amren.com and bring it to the racists?....as usual silence.
AN,
I agree with the others here. Nas is smarter than he looks. While I wasn't too keen on that N-Word crusade he was on, it was good marketing. He became relevant again, which is not easy for a rapper of his ilk to do in the era of Lookin' Ass Ni@@a, and Superman Dat' H#.
The whole album title was good marketing for a VERY GOOD album. I'm not the biggest Nas fan, but you can't possibly listen to Untitled and think dude's not onto something.
The Fox News protest is course just more pub. He wouldn't have bothered had his album not dropped last week. But I give him props for taking a stand at least.
I added you to the blogroll on my site. I'll catch you next go round on NPR.
-AB
It's all bullshit . THe world is full of bullshit. Black people have been fighting for years, and this shit is still on television. Not only would I ignore BET, or MTV, or Fucking Fox News, but I would ignore every single channel on American TV. But ,that isnt going to happen, because people need entertainment.
i always dig your blog ... but you have just earned 1,000,000 cool point from me. you mentioned IMmortal Technique...
Nas latest: Overrated.... way overrated. there are a few gems in there but overall, you don't HAVE to have it.
I find Fox News to be racist and very nutty. I don't think Nas is saying anything new and it's safe to call Fox News racist. he is not doing anything risky.
I agree with you that Nassir could boycott BET, etc., but I was very impressed that he at least took up a cause and that he is detesting FoxNews for their racist propaganda. How many hip-hop artists are doing that nowadays? Furthermore, how many mainstream hip-hop artists are taking up any causes?
Yes, FoxNews is conservative and they are running an anti-Obama campaign, but I believe that there is an inherent distinction between them having a conservative slant in the way in which they present their information and them making overtly racist remarks; they do both.
This year they have repeatedly made attacks on Obama and his family as a result of him being an African American (okay okay, biracial). Conservative, liberal, neutral, or whatever Sir, they are unwarranted in their racist attacks against him, and I believe that further action should be taken against them. Again, they can run anti-Obama campaigns until their hearts' content (lol), but when they attack him for his racial makeup, I believe (as many others do—as I am sure you do—as well) that they are wrong.
Regarding his original album title, "Nigger," yes, that was a controversial name, claro (of course). Actually, I thought that I would not enjoy the album because I am one who believes that the word should be buried (although some of our so-called leaders that supposedly buried the word still use it today). But, when I looked past the title of the album and actually listened to what he had to say on his album, he raised some very interesting points... Have you listened to the album? I think that you should if you have not; I believe that if you attempt to temporarily get past the original title of the album and take a listen to his lyrics/content, the album may leave you pondering on the implications of his tracks... Okay, I will give one example; he entitled one of his tracks, “Fried Chicken”; now you would think that he would be advocating how African Americans love fried chicken, etc., but he actually personifies “fried chicken” into a toxic beautiful woman who will eventually bring a man, an African American man, down to his knees as a result of her toxins (lol); so, essentially, he states that fried chicken is bad for African Americans, how it causes heart disease/health problems, and how, in spite of the health risks that result from African Americans eating fried chicken, we still choose to eat it… Now I could go on and on and on regarding a discussion of his album, but I believe that you should really listen to it first... If you do not agree with what he has to say fine, but at least listen please, lol.
Well, I hope you will read all of this, lol, but I decided to peruse previous comments and your responses to these comments and I found a part of one of your particular comments interesting:
“Was it really to make a statement or was it to make a sale? And why does the Black image have to suffer every time a rapper wants to make a buck?.....again, I’ll check out
k this message is continued from my previous posting (which is rather lengthy, lol):
the cd (or is that an mp3 file, ahem..)…but he should still bring "fire" to his colleagues before he goes for Fox....Fox has seen Black on Black minstrelsy & disrespect and decided to join in, now Nas wants to hate?.....Please....time to rise and stop the hypocrisy.”
Of course, I or no one else can really determine whether Nas entitled the album as such to make a buck or to truly make a point; but, again, if you listen to the content of the album (yes, a couple of songs are materialistic but only a couple mind you), I believe that you would realize that he did not produce this album to make a sale.
I mean, hell, if he wanted to make a sale, he could have talked about a “Buss It Baby,” having a shootout, the amount of cars and/or shoes that he has (okay, slight rant, I do not understand how rappers talk about how much they have as if they originally had those things; as a result of their fans buying their garbage, that is why they have those materialistic things; but I am using “have” rather loosely, they probably rent them; okay, let me stop, lol), or some other foolishness… I mean, if you were unaware, rappers who actually produce lyrically thought-provoking songs are definitely not in these days, lol… Take a listen to the album though, lol (and yes, it is available online (actually it was available like a few weeks-month prior to when the album dropped in stores… ) and tell us what you think!
Also, I wanted to know about the RSS feed for your blog; I cannot get it work for some reason. Do you have any suggestions?
Okay, one more thing regarding the title; I think he named it as such because he wanted to put the issue about the use of the N-word out in the open public.
Many African-Americans claim that they don't use it, but they do; yet, they get mad when others use the word. Some (maybe many to others) Caucasian Americans claim that either they never use the word (and they do in the privacy of their own homes), or they wonder why African Americans are allowed to use the word and they cannot (ahem, Elizabeth Hassleback, sp? from "The View")--which would lead me to wonder if they are mad that they cannot publicly use the word themselves (of course they can if they really wanted to)...
So, in a sense, I believe that Nas is trying to bring the issue of the use of the N-word into the American public.
I believe this album should cause us, especially African Americans to ask a few questions regarding the N-word. What do we want to do with the word? Bury it? Continue to use it?
I mean I am sure you are aware (btw, this is one thing that I do not like about the album) that many African Americans have justified their usage of the N-word because they believe that they have turned the pejorative into a term of positive endearment... eh, I think that's BS and--also--how do African Americans know whether a fellow African American who is using the term is using it with a meaning of endearment or with the original negative connotation (I'm black btw, lol)??
I will seriously stop now, lol!
People think Nas is special... he's just another rapper trying to make a buck. I hate people portraying him as some kind of conscious rapper. He's an on/off conscious rapper--- when it's profitable. Had he decided to initially name his album something non-controversial, it would not be one of the most anticipated albums of the year. I'm with him 50% on the things he speaks on, the other half... sometimes Nasir is just IGNORANT. And I think a majority of the people who think he is 100% complete truth and his album fire simply want to be down with something labeled "conscious" without understanding the messages or having opinions of their own (because it seems we're back in a conscious is cool "cycle" of hip-hop).
The days of entertainers and athletes begining considered as role models is long gone. Mainly due to the fact that when some do try to make a stand they are often in battle with the same people or movement that their trying to represent. As for me I take the good and bad that comes from a person and build on that,instead of looking for dislikes in their ways.Its either roll with it or not! We need to stop!
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