Nas - Nigger

Nas forces us to speak about the unspeakable

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by Elizabeth Bromstein
50 Cent has weighed in on the debate over Nas's controversial album title N***er. He's on Al Sharpton's side, according to MTV, saying "Nas sucks. It's nonsense, man. That's a stupid name. It doesn't make sense. Why would you title it that?"

Why indeed? Nas has an answer. He told MTV "I wanna make the word easy on muthaf***as' ears. You see how white boys ain't mad at 'cracker' 'cause it don't have the same [sting] as 'n***er'? I want 'n***er' to have less meaning [than] 'cracker.' With all the bulls**t that's going on in the world, racism is at its peak. I wanna do the s**t that's not being done."

Interesting. Despite the slightly inadequate comparison to "cracker," a word that never exactly instilled mass terror and that also applies to edibles and fireworks, I get it. And I like it.

It wouldn't be the first time someone has attempted such a thing. Musicians have been taking on social injustice, real and perceived, for..well...ever probably. And often, it's even effective. Though there's no way to measure this sort of thing, one would be hard pressed to argue that rock n roll didn't play a large part in the civil rights movement. Band AID, USA for Africa and the like brought attention to the plight of suffering people. Live Earth is at least somewhat responsible for the overwhelmingly environmentally conscious climate we inhabit today.

One might say that music, or at least famous people due to their immense influence, have something of a capacity to change the world. Or at least the way people see it. Probably more so than ever these days given the current mass celebrity obsession (which I frankly find quite creepy).

Though, I'm not sure Nas is actually famous enough to change the world. After all, in our celebrity saturated culture, each famous person, save for a select few is allotted only a ration of the available fame (there has to be enough to go around) and Nas is not exactly at the top of the list. Or he wasn't. Until this week. Kind of makes you suspicious doesn't it?

Method Man and Akon stand behind him. Akon told MTV, "That's intelligent ... If you teach our new generation that it don't mean nothing, then it won't be nothing. It's just a word. That's all it is. You create the power for that word when you support it in a negative way. It's just a f***in' word, like the word 'f***in'.' That's why I can put out a song with [the word] 'f***in' ' in it and it becomes a hit."

50, on the other hand, not usually the voice of reason, is appropriately sceptical. He said "He just wants to make basic conversation," 50 declared. "You helped him out because you asked me [about it], and people who are interested in me would like to hear the answer. But other than that, there's nothing interesting in that. It's just for shock value."

Hmmm. What to think? Who to believe? And what, exactly, will be the eventual outcome?

You'll notice that most of the press, myself included, won't even write the word. Isn't that weird? I think it's weird. We're all discussing a word we can't even say. I probably wouldn't even talk about the album in public, lest someone hear me and get offended. Which makes any discourse on the matter somewhat ironic. I wonder what Nas would say about that.