My buzzin' Rasheed sent the team a link to this new Nas video here.
Say what you will about the brother, but I am going to give him credit for the efforts he's making with this new album. When I first heard that he was no longer calling his album 'Nigger', I was very disappointed with him. I'm tired of black people lacking the courage to, as Malcolm once said, 'tell the white man the truth to his face'. Or tell anyone the truth to their face for that matter. I cringed as Obama denounced his own pastor in order to win the belt (this political shit is as phony and entertaining as wrestling nowadays), and I cover my face when I see Sam Jackson star in "A Time to Kill" only to move on to "Snakes on A Plane".
From what I'm seeing, however, Nas' case is slightly different. He appears to only be changing the title of the album, whereas none of the content will be different. So if this change means that a few more people will purchase the joint and listen to it, then I'm okay with that. It's better than them not listening to it at all.
Quite frankly, there are many folks out here who have no understanding of racism and its direct impact on their lives. Pre-1970, you might see someone getting lynched or firehosed and realized that something's up. Even your typical white bigot knew that their actions bore some sort of prejudice. But today racism is far more subtle and difficult to detect. The young Dominican in an NY public school may have no idea just how inferior the facilities are compared to the virtually whites-only private school just a mile away. The hipster gentrifier who jogs down St. Nicholas or Nostrand Ave. doesn't realize that their mere presence has driven up the price of just about everything in the hood. They don't understand that the reason bodega prices are so cheap is because most neighborhood people can't afford Gristede's and Fairway prices.
The issues that Nas addresses on this record are important for people to hear, because for some, they may never hear it anywhere else. I consider myself to be fairly well read on race matters, but I didn't get most of my knowledge until I got to high school and college. And that's only because I took classes that focused on race. We have people in this country who think racism doesn't exist, yet continue to simultaneously cast Obama as a Muslim while criticizing his Christian pastor!
I'll leave this blog on that note right there.
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2 comments:
You got sick from 149th food, that don't make the whole Bronx food bad! And that food probably comes from someplace else! Food bad everywhere. Nigga, you done ate Bronx food @ my crib many times, and aint get sick lol! That makes zero sense, lol!
I can't be mad at Nas, we all change up the appearance of things at times, to fit in, to a certain extent. I wished he woulda kept the title also, but his track record of being gully far surpasses most folks I know, including myself. And the song is bananas.
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