Nas: “My Album, ‘Nigger,’ Is Coming Out and Def Jam is With It”

By Quibian Salazar-Moreno
      After a report from Fox News that Def Jam Records is not releasing a new Nas album this winter and it would never release an album with title like “Nigga”, Nas told MTV News that the report was news to him.
      "I don’t know where that [report] came from and neither does Def Jam," Nas told MTV News. "None of us knows where that came from."
Nas told MTV that he changed the album title to “Nigger” and it’s slated to hit stores on December 11. He said that he’s two weeks away from finishing up the album and it features production from Salaam Remi, Jermaine Dupri, Diddy and DJ Toomp. In response to the negative reactions from Jesse Jackson, NAACP and other Fox News pundits, Nas said to mind their business.
      “I’m a street disciple," Nas said. "I’m talking to the streets. Stay out of our business. You ain’t got no business worrying about what the word ‘nigger’ is or acting like you know what my album is about without talking to me. Whether you in the NAACP or you Jesse Jackson. I respect all of them … I just want them to know: Never fall victim to Fox. Never fall victim to the sh– they do. What they do is try to hurry up and get you on the phone and try to get you to talk about something you might not know about yet.
      "If Cornell West was making an album called Nigger, they would know he’s got something intellectual to say," Nas continued. "To think I’m gonna say something that’s not intellectual is calling me a nigger, and to be called a nigger by Jesse Jackson and the NAACP is counterproductive, counter-revolutionary."
Nas also told MTV he wanted to help make the word less hurtful while at the same time educating his fans.
      "I wanna make the word easy on mutha—-as’ ears," he explained. "You see how white boys ain’t mad at ‘cracker’ ’cause it don’t have the same [sting] as ‘nigger’? I want ‘nigger’ to have less meaning [than] ‘cracker.’ With all the bullsh– that’s going on in the world, racism is at its peak. I wanna do the sh– that’s not being done. I wanna be the artist who ain’t out. I wanna make the music I wanna hear.
      "We’re taking power from the word," he added. "No disrespect to none of them who were part of the civil-rights movement, but some of my n—as in the streets don’t know who [civil-rights activist] Medgar Evers was. I love Medgar Evers, but some of the n—as in the streets don’t know Medgar Evers, they know who Nas is. And to my older people who don’t now who Nas is and who don’t know what a street disciple is, stay outta this mutha—-in’ conversation. We’ll talk to you when we’re ready. Right now, we’re on a whole new movement. We’re taking power from that word."