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Column: Nas' new album will only hurt, not help

By Ryan Beck
March 7, 2008

In music the hip-hop genre has had its ups and downs for political activism. The black community has greatly benefited from influential political artists like KRS-One, Common and Saul Williams. Now a rapper who could be mentioned along with those previous names, Nas, is about to release a new album under a title that does not do anything but degrade and digress from any civil rights advances that he has made for the black community. Nas’s new album will be titled “Nigger.”

Titling politically charged art with the n-word is not uncommon. A book by one of the most influential and brilliant comedians/civil rights leaders, Dick Gregory, was titled the same. The book and album deal with much different issues.

First, the book was released in 1964, when racial equality was far from where it is now. At the time Gregory released his book no black person had even been allowed to sit on a couch on a late-night television talk show. Yes, racism in the entertainment industry still exists, but Nas is just rehashing demeaning issues to make money, not to progress civil rights in any form. It seems pretty safe to say his album will not be filled with sound arguments and allegories that encourage black people instead of demean them. Some members of the black community feel Nas is hurting not only himself, but also the black community.

Rev. Jesse Jackson stated in a news release as reported by CNN.com, “The title using the n-word is morally offensive and socially distasteful. Nas has the right to degrade and denigrate in the name of free speech, but there is no honor in it.” Now, Jackson isn’t the spokesman for all black people, but he is a very influential voice for the community.

Nas claims that in naming the album, he is paying homage to the struggle black people have faced and people who have come to own the word like Richard Pryor, Paul Mooney and Dr. Dre. But toward the end of Pryor’s stand-up career, after a visit to Africa, he claimed he would never use the word on stage again. And he didn’t. It seems strange to me to try to honor somebody like Pryor with the “-er” ending of a word that he helped reclaim and change into something almost all rappers at least have come to own, “n---a.” Yet news sources and Def Jam Records have stated the album will be titled with the “-er” ending.

Naming an album after the “-er” variety of the word will only make widespread the use of the word the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People buried last year. Interestingly, the market in which most hip-hop albums are purchased is white suburbia. The last thing this country needs are white teenagers riding around in their Honda Civics glorifying the word through their speech and actions. He is commercializing the use of the word, a tactic that will only end in problems.

Nas’s album has done at least one thing without even being heard: raise controversy. Jackson said, “Radio and television stations have no obligation to play it, and self-respecting people have no obligation to buy it.”

Some artists like Jay-Z and Alicia Keys have defended Nas’s right to do this, but neither has said it’s ethical.

Sadly, I think his reason is persuaded by his pocketbook rather than his political agenda.

Nas’s album is scheduled for release April 22.

Campus Lodge

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