Untitled: The Album Formerly Known As
Nas ditched the N-word. But does he even need it anymore?
May 22, 2008--
"Cause anytime we mention our condition, our history or existence/They calling it reverse racism."
--Nas' "N.I.G.G.E.R. (The Slave & The Master)"
Contrary to the recent flurry of reports regarding the name change of Nas' ninth studio album from Nigger to Nas , Nas himself confirms a change, but sets the record straight about the record's title. According to AllHipHop.com, Nas will allow the album to be released untitled, claiming that his fans are fully aware of his original naming intentions.
The publicity surrounding the album previously known as Nigger has been ubiquitous-- from Nas wearing a Nigger shirt at a high-profile awards show to an audacious and financially incisive divestment threat from former industry-insider-turned-reactionary-politician, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn, N.Y.).
Jeffries threatened to pull $84 million in New York state pension fund money out of an investment in Universal/Vivendi. Thus, despite L.A. Reid's public support for Nas' artistic freedom, there was no way that his bosses were going to allow Nas his first amendment rights at the risk of losing $84 million in a lose/lose public relations conflict.
The pressure on Nas to change the title of his album came from all corners: his label's parent company, political figures, talk show pundits, other rappers and even some hip-hop aficionados. To the extent that any of these entities are interested in a dialogue about the N-word (its past, present and future) their impulse to silence Nas belies a deeper misunderstanding of hip-hop culture and the generations of young and not so young people who subscribe to it.
I don't recall as much controversy surrounding the release of NWA's Niggaz4Life album in the early 1990s or Tupac's Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. released shortly thereafter. For Pac N.I.G.G.A. meant "never-ignorant-getting-goals-accomplished" but for Niggaz With Attitude (NWA), it meant just about the opposite -- something more like: "always-ignorant-never-getting-anything-meaningful-done." Yet hip-hop culture always has and continues to embrace these contradictions.
Although I think I understand the insidious business rationale behind the blatant censorship of one of hip-hop's finest artists (i.e. you can be a nigger-rapper but you can not be a rapper who critiques the concept/term "nigger"), I am unsettled by the numerous talking heads who line up to muffle Nas as if he is somehow incapable of critically engaging American history and the etymology of the N-word.
He does this directly in "N.I.G.G.E.R. (The Slave & The Master)" and more ironically in "Be a Nigger Too." In "N.I.G.G.E.R. . ." Nas directly addresses and acknowledges the history of the term even as he challenges young people to understand that they are both slave and master; "the question and the answer." Through detailed narratives he paints images of inner city living in order to render the socially invisible 'niggers' through his lyrics. Clearly Nas is invested in using his music to engage his audience of listeners in a critical dialogue about the N-word. I cannot imagine how someone (anyone) can listen to these lyrics and somehow think that Nas is condoning the use of the term or licensing anyone in his audience to divorce the N-word from its awful history.
If we are actually interested in young people talking about their use/misuse, understanding/misunderstanding of the term, please know that Randall Kennedy and Dick Gregory will not (and have not) been heard by the hip-hop generation.
The NAACP's ceremonial burial of the N-word will not be heard by the hip-hop generation and Jabari Asim's treatise on the N-word, brilliant as it is, will likely not be heard by the hip-hop generation. Nasir Jones will be heard, and I suspect that if his name was an acronym (say, Nigger Against Society) he might have fared better in this free-speech battle by positioning himself as the typical Bad Nigger instead of a thoughtful one.
James Braxton Peterson is an assistant professor of English and Africana studies at Bucknell University and the founder of Hip Hop Scholars, Inc.
Also on The Root:
Saaret Yoseph takes a racism roundtrip, John McWhorter keeps up with the beat, and Helena Andrews strikes a Vogue position.
Discuss:
Untitled: The Album Formerly Known As
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View All Comments »JC3 at 05/28/2008 10:04:09 AM
Comment:
Nas's 1st amendment rights?
The first amendment says...
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
As i see it Nas is perfectly free to do this. What he wants is for Universal/Vivendi to PAY for him to do it on an album. He does not have the right to require this. Professor Peterson, we should expect better from this page.
Additionally, why is it that once again we as a community are rushing to defend someone who degrades us? Is Nas's message one that uplifts or inspires our community? No, its yet another in a long line of tired, hateful, degrading rap albums. Designed (so it seems) to enrich some, (i.e. the "artist" and his labels) while adding to the downward spiral of young African Americans.
Can he use the word? Sure, i have no problem with it. Should he? Probably not. Should Universal sponsor him in doing it? If it was my money, i wouldn't. Maybe the Professor and his Hip Hop Scholars will publish the album as originally titled...
maliph at 05/24/2008 3:43:21 AM
Comment:
disclaimer: i am not an american. but, i cameof age in ny and md in the 80's, so i know where the todays sample is from, as well as yesterdays. but that word is not in my mouth. no where.i am from the caribbean, and for me, with that word comes the 400+ years of of pain of those who came before, most unwillingly, on some small ass ships, from Africa.
i am NOT your ***. for my great grand mother certainly was someone's. ***. Critical discourse? on the n word? that's like saying, i'm going to keep the knife in my heart, while i take a look at how long it takes for me to bleed out.... it's a non issue, because THERE IS NO NEED FOR IT. IT IS SELF EVIDENT THE RESULT IS PATHALOGICAL. it's killing you. cha. somtimes, i feel black america is in a cage, and the bars are gone, and u don't know how to step out.
nasir. u my man. but this folly? black man. please.
carbonMike at 05/23/2008 4:09:39 PM
Comment:
nola_diva has got it right. Why are we scrambling to "claim" an English-language corruption of a Spanish/Portuguese word used at one point to describe black chattel slaves and, later on, black people in general? It doesn't say much for the self-knowledge of anyone who chooses to "own" that one term, having the entire rich legacy and historical experience of the black disapora to choose from. It sounds like a rationalization after the fact: I'm going to keep using that word no matter what, but if I make some pseudo-intellectual arguments in favor, I can get the academics on my side. Worked like a charm, apparently.
More to the point, Nas's argument as quoted by warrenlongmire is objectively wrong anyway. Who the hell says that once I "own something" it can never be used against me? What kind of silly-ass logic is that? If I own a weapon and use it in combat, can my opponent not take it from me and injure or kill me with it? Does an understanding of something confer immunity from its effects? Is it somehow impossible to poison a chemist or throw a physicist out a window? Come on now!