N*gger inspiration: everything, every day, says Nas. And ants...
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Rapper Nas has explained the influences behind his forthcoming Nigger LP, out at the start of July, to MTV.
The short version: "Everything that's happening every day."
The long version:
_ "I get to thinking about how we evolved, how the human family evolved and shit. And I looked at ants, man. One day, I was looking at a bunch of ants. We've got a lot in common - just like everything that's alive, everything that eats and breathes and builds and creates. There's a connection to even the smallest thing. So I looked at it as the whole world, instead of looking at us as beauty. Inside poverty, inside the street, inside the ghettos and the gutters and the slums, we aren't looked at as beauty out there. We were looked at as the worst pest, and because of that, because of that treatment, some of us started to believe we were a pest, started to believe what we were told, and started to act like it, and started to reproduce my people, bring kids in the world that were fucked up in the head. When Americans want their independence and they celebrate it, they know what's still going down. We can't forget it. America still got a lot of growing up to do. America has so much great potential. You know, I love this country, but at the same time, we have to fix up a lot of things. And it's just a reminder."_
And the title? "Record stores are gonna have a problem in this day and time selling a record with that title." Yes, yes they are. "Everybody is trying to stop the title. It's just people being scared of what's real. Our older black people can take it the wrong way. Some non-blacks can take it the wrong way, and it becomes a thing that becomes controversial in all the wrong ways. I accept that."
And ultimately, "I'm here to do music. I'm here to rap about what I feel and what makes sense to me."
Ants, man. Ants.
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Thants
now quite sure why the tone of the article appears to be ridiculing
that's a pretty intelligent assessment i think
^^ this
.
I don't really see anything wrong with the title...
but he'd have to admit that he'd be equally unoffended if, say, Scooter decided to release a record of the same name.
if scooter was waxing lyrical
about black poverty over happy hardcore beats...i might have to let that one slip. Still its different, i doubt scooter is clued on that life like Nas.
earth to nas:
no-one cares anymore. we really don't. illmatic was mega, and then that was it, really. as a white guy, if i really wanted your album, i'd download it for free, rather than having to risk the social faux-pas of going into hmv and asking for 'nigger'.
that is all.
this is, obviously, a reply in the wrong place
that is really all
and you've missed the point entirely
have you heard the single? the entire thing is about breaking the power of the word through the ridiculous usage and nonsensical application of the word. it loses all meaning when you say it 80 times in reference to everything, it breaks it down to a nonsense word; its not just appropriating the word for black people, its completely destroying it.
the fact is, by naming the record nigger its making the word completely harmless. if you truly believe asking for nas - nigger at the counter is going to be such a huge social faux pas, you're probably as neurotic as 100 Larry Davids; its completely innocuous by essence of the excess.
between the article and comments like that, i get a really uneasy feeling about DiS. at best you're compounding the stereotype of awkward white nerd, which is pretty hilarious really, imagining a jittery skinny white boy attempting to find the courage to say the dreaded "N" word! I feel genuinely disappointed however that the tone of the article seems to be dismissing not only a pretty eloquent assessment of a real problem, but also quite a brilliant statement because "its some silly black fella saying nigger, rappers can't make sense, just hippidy hop!"
Blants!
"What are birds?, We just don't know"
surely the whole point about using the word
is that it's not completely harmless, and has massive historical and racist implications? It's always going to be a powerful word, and by overusing it, he's showing that. The fact is that the world is still an extremely racist place, and the word nigger is not innocuous at all, as evidenced by the controversy that the title has provoked.
well put
, whether one chooses to agree or disagree with Nas or not.
I feel the same way as you about the way DiS treats this kind of thing.
it's a nice thought...
but it doesn't work like that.
calling his record 'nigger' is on a par with the singer from selfish cunt drawing swastikas on himself to "lessen its impact" and preston ordinary going in the big brother house to "satirise celebrity".
as sebulous says, the massive historical significance at fluctuation of meaning will see that calling his album this means shit.
can't help but think it's either a desparate publicity stunt, or a really misguided attempt at something well beyond his means. either way: fail.
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