“Be a Nigger Too,” a controversial track off Nas’ forthcoming album, Nigger garnered praise from some in the Hip Hop community, but not everyone is fawning over Nasir’s dive into all things “The N Word.”
NY Oil—one of the only artists to have a video banned from YouTube—voiced his displeasure with the song, Nas and the industry as a whole in an editorial appearing on Davey D’s web site.
Opening the editorial in a similar fashion to a courtroom opening argument, NY Oil lays out the case against major record labels dealing with artists who are “conscious.”
“They will never sign., do business with, or even acknowledge the Artist of change,” he writes. “If pressed [label reps] will admit to having ‘been up on’ this Artist in a hallow [sic] attempt at affirming their hipness. When asked if they plan on working with this artist they will give a random list of excuses not limited to ‘He’s hot but .. that kind of music doesn’t sell’, ‘She’s the shit.. but people ain’t ready for that’ , ‘I wish i could bring them here but right now ‘insert corporate higher ups name here’ is on some other shit’ All the while they are changing pace, making adjustments, having conference calls, and restructuring. Making the final preparations to counteract this Artist of Change.”
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“The end game plays like this: they find an artist on their current roster that they can refashion to fit the basic mold of the Artist of change. If they dress him up like, or give him a similar message to the artist of change and put hundreds of thousands in promotional dollars behind the Stat quo Artist they can undermine and even usurper the Artist of change. You can always identify the Stat Quo Artist from the Artist of change because when asked about his ‘New image’ or ‘New Direction’ he is hard pressed to answer sincerely or intelligibly. In fact the Stat Quo artist will blather on in circles clumsily during interviews stumbling over his own ignorance of what his ‘New Direction’ is.”
According to NY Oil, the artist with the “new image” this time around is none other than Nas himself.
“And after hearing your interviews, seeing the title of your upcoming LP, and hearing your ‘leaked’ song ‘Be A Nigger Too’ I can say without doubt…. Nas you are THAT nigga!”
‘Nas you’re that nigga that pretends to have a grasp on the social quagmire that our people are stuck in and yet cannot for the life of you articulate or justify your position on this obvious plea for controversy. Does this brother realize that his attempts at diffusing the word “Nigger” by making it some all inclusive colloquialism to represent all races is as weak as the beat he spit it too? Does he realize that when Robert Schwartz decides to stop being a nigger all he has to do is change his look. maybe trade in the bapes and backpack put on a suit and he’s right and exact. When Robert Yung decides he’s no longer a nigga he can be whatever an person of Asian decent can be in the country stereo types not withstanding. When Robert Rodriguez decides to stop being a nigger he can become a proud man of Latin descent. However for Robert Jenkins who’s Grandparents where NIGGERS, blown over by fire hoses and beat within an inch of their lives, when the term meant what it will always mean despite his attempts to make it a term of endearment. Whom despite his affluence or allegiance has to be as scared as a runaway slave when pulled over for driving black or shopping black, or standing in a group of more than 3 in his own neighborhood while black or any of the number of things blacks can do innocently while being black and end up dead because the Cop who shot him 50 times like Shawn Bell or 42 like Amadou Diallo didn’t consider himself a nigger.. We’re the only race that embraces our disgrace, and now you would have everyone else sing along with us in our shame.”
“You’ve been everything they ever told you to be. Nasty Nas, Nastrodomas, Nas Escobar. and now you’re their Nigga… At what point are you going to be a MAN?”
Journalist and Hip Hop historian Davey D also takes Nas to task and notes Universal Music Groups (Def Jam’s parent label) inconsistency when it comes to music with messages of social justice.
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“…bear in mind Nas is a part of the Universal Music group family that disallowed Young Buck from doing a anti-police song last year and had issues with Public Enemy invoking the name of Mumia Abu Jamal in one of their songs several years ago, yet saw fit to send [Be a Nigger Too] out-Go figure,” he said.
Check out Nas’ “Be a Nigger Too” in our audio section [click to listen].
