On Friday night at New York’s Roseland Ballroom, Nas announced the title of his next album: He said it will be called "Nigga" and released in December. A source close to the project confirmed the name on Saturday.Genius
It will take an artist like Nas, a poet, to teach reactionary Plantation Negros that a word has no more power than you give it.
15 comments:
I trust Nas to do a good job with this. Nas is in my top 2 of all time. 2pac, Nas, Raekwon. I'm glad it ain't the title of Little John's new album though.
That's a good point Big J. Nas can pull it off. Lil John can't.
Most rap haters can't understand that difference.
Good for you. ;-]
Nothing but exploitation!
I doubt he will be able to keep this controversial title. he's well equipped to give a lesson on the subject.
I'll be anxious to see the substance of the project.
Nigga please.
"It will take an artist like Nas, a poet, to teach reactionary Plantation Negros that a word has no more power than you give it."
You don't even realize you're giving it power by still using it. You're giving it power by trying to defend it and change the original meaning rooted in hate to something positive.
"Genius"???
All he's going to do is open back up the debate on the word, which will give the word a lot of attention and people like Sharpton are going to be stirring up publicity and Blacks are going to be debating and giving energy to some bullshit word instead of addressing real issues like our young Black brothers incarcerated.
Find another word to use. Is it that serious?
As I see it pd NAS is exploiting the current debate for PR purposes. Cool... but your are correct... No matter how DV thinks the definition of the word will change. It is still defined clearly in Merriam -Websters and if it were a term of endearment then Niggas wouldn't say it as they are gattin & cappin each other now would they?? or Black on black crime wouldn't be so high and on the rise if Niggas are calling each other Niggas all the time. What gives DV?
PD is right. the word alone is generationally divisive, it will distract and the media will say 'look at these hipocritical negroes' again. I understand Nas wanting to touch the subject but I don't see discussion on the title advancing to something productive. Seems like the label (or Nas himself) is trying to best the shock and awe title of Hip Hop is Dead.
KP
To: NAS (God's Son)who wants to make the word "fly to you"
"The Experience by C-Lo"
I Thought you said you was the G-O-D
sound like another nigger to me, ha ha, yeah
I thought you said you was the G-O-D
sound like another nigger to me, shit
What a nigger do, what a nigger does
and a nigger is what a nigger was
and a nigger done read history but yet his eyes didn't see
the only reason you a nigger is because somebody else wants you to be
well a nigger uneducated, intergrated, singin' "We shall overcome"
A nigger trying to be white is what a nigger seem like have become
and when they call me a nigger to my face'
can't do nothin' but walk away
but here it is niggers call other niggers niggers each and every day
dividing and conquering
when they say the lighter shade of black is okay
after the middle class and they passin' by
the projects laughing about where we stay
since a nigger had got grown, had a little bitty of nigger of my own
should've known I couldn't show 'em no better what I was shown
Shit, I still wanna hit the club as fresh as I can be
really, all for another nigger to see
you know how a nigger get when he see another nigger outfit
don't want nobody to have what he ain't got
somebody get drunk, get mad, and get shot
that's why the property value ain't no good in a nigger neighborhood
a nigger could overstand if he only understood
I'm sick of lyin' I'm sick of glorifyin' dyin'
I'm sick of not trying, shit I'm sick of being a nigger
destiny sent me to this dread and she said she felt led
to offer me some wisdom from this notebook she read
and it said that right then the black man's downfall
was not knowing that we were never niggers at all, hmm
and she looked deeply into my eyes and said brother don't you know
you complain about being black,
when they mad coz they can't be black no mo'
so many black men out here trying to be niggers
keeping it real to the point that they dying to be niggers
when in actuality the fact is you ain't a nigger because you black
you a nigger cause of how you act
but, you don't want me to tell you the truth, so I'ma lie to you
make it sound fly to you huh, huh,
you don't wanna hear the truth, so I'ma lie to you
make it sound fly to you, shit
The nigger experience
has been stated, it was created
The nigger experience
I see the word as powerfully potent opportunity to finally teach black people that slavery is entirely mental and for the most part voluntary.
What "nigga"
a) means
b) is supposed to mean
c) used to mean
d) means to some people
e) could mean
... is entirely up to us.
IT MEANS WHAT THE FUCK WE SAY IT MEANS.
That's why I like Rap.
The way Rappers use the word "Nigga" HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WHITE PEOPLE.
It reflects the way the word is used within our culture.
Understand that.
Black people who continue to qualify their existence by peering at themselves through the lens of "white" people - will always live on mental plantations. It's their comfort zone.
Co-opting the word nigga, reinventing it, taking something that used to hurt us ... and using it as a tool of multiple and subtle expression is evidence of imagination and intellectual agility.
God gives you lemons, make lemonade.
We got half the people who used to call us Niggas, quietly wanting to be one. (Think chubby white boys in Toyota Prius lip synching Kanye's 'Gold Digga')
What's more Gangsta than that?
There is more power in having people imitate you than you spending your life imitating them.
If you don't like the term - don't use it.
If you don't want to hear it, let people know.
But all of this hyperventilating about the term gives white folks too much power.
DV
to finally teach black people that slavery is entirely mental and for the most part voluntary.
Voluntary!... You must have hit your head this weekend on that golf swing back swing!
DV
"We got half the people who used to call us Niggas, quietly wanting to be one. (Think chubby white boys in Toyota Prius lip synching Kanye's 'Gold Digga')"
For 30 seconds maybe then the prospect of profiling, poverty & prison set in! As the pull up to their well paying job.
DV
There is more power in having people imitate you than you spending your life imitating them.
I don't see white boys walking around with gold chains, pants around their ankles calling their women bitches and ho's. I can't ever recall a white boy on the corner slingin dope either. Sorry I just don't see all this follow the leader stuff you speak of. If anything they imitate in the gangsta rap game it's Iovine.
Here is what Mr. Nasir Jones said on it a while back...speaking with MTV
"Racism is ugly. Our people are faced with a serious dilemma, what do we do? You got conservative, rich black folks that are above the word “n—a.” Rightfully so. Then you got the word n—a, which has the genius of the black mind and has been changed into a billion-dollar word through Richard Pryor, who should own it. Paul Mooney should own the word. N.W.A, Dr. Dre, should own a piece of the word. “N—a” has changed into a billion-dollar franchise. It’s just a smack in the face to all the races that we’ve changed that into a positive. You’re gonna have brothers and sisters who are educated who don’t need it. You also have a world who lives in it, who deals with it every day on levels that are unbearable."
Oh and I've lived in AZ, MI, TX and now GA and I've seen ALL this...
"I don't see white boys walking around with gold chains, pants around their ankles calling their women bitches and ho's. I can't ever recall a white boy on the corner slingin dope either. Sorry I just don't see all this follow the leader stuff you speak of. If anything they imitate in the gangsta rap game it's Iovine."
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