I don't even completely agree with Nas...

...but this is cool. Just glad to see him standing for something. Obama is actually having an effect on hip-hop--just not the one that some of these fools thought he would. I still wish Nas had kept the original album title.

Comments

What's there not to agree with? It's not being forced to sit in the back of the bus but all the examples he sited have racist undertones either explicit or subtle and need to be challenged. That said I'm not sure what the point of being rhetorical on this is. As far as Barack having an effect on hip hop that maybe so but I'm not sure how much that applies to Nas. He has artfully rhymed about a cross section of issues from day one and while this type of non-entertainment expression is a little new, it's not unexpected in the least.

Posted by Karl | July 24, 2008 11:31 AM

What don't you agree with? I don't get why he is focusing on Obama, I mean, Fox has said outrageous, racist things way before Obama came on the scene. Why not attack them for their images of young black males, aka "hip-hoppers"? I saw Nas on Colbert and I was happy to see him getting political. Yet I don't support that stupid Nigger promo he did.

Posted by shani | July 24, 2008 4:06 PM

I wish he had too!

Posted by Tyler | July 24, 2008 4:35 PM

Obviously, I'm no fan of Fox, but I'm not particularly interested in whether they are racist or not. I just don't much care.

Posted by Ta-Nehisi Coates | July 24, 2008 7:20 PM

In other news, did you see NaS on the Colbert Report? I'm with Ta-Nehisi, I'm glad to see him up on some good shit publicly. Hopefully we can start to get back to that Chuck D type profile of major hip hop artists. Let hip hop be the black community's CNN again.

Posted by DJ ImagoDei | July 24, 2008 7:34 PM

Well, that you don't feel any desire to care is the mark of a certain kind of progress I suppose. Although I don't think the point of opposing Fox is to carry around the burden of there view of black people as some sort of badge of injustice. I would think that as a thoughtful person it would be of some concern that the message arm of one of the most influential corporations in the world spreads lies and distortions with a racial divisive tone, but it's just my opinion. Guess that's the beauty of free will.

Posted by Karl | July 24, 2008 9:47 PM

Well, I don't watch Fox but many people grumble and complain about it so I think folks are happy to see their complaints getting media attention. Fox may not affect me directly, but it has a strong following and I like to see O'reilly being challenged on his nonsense. I'm not saying we all need to march and boycott, but I don't think it is a waste of time to challenge views in a public forum. God knows real MCs need some publicity too.

Posted by shani | July 24, 2008 11:30 PM

I think its more the aftermath of Katrina that had the politicizing effect - see the Juveniles get your hustle on -
(not sure if i can embed in these comments)

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=qSa7rimRm-k

Banner's new album too, makes the connection from katrina to social commentary- or take the New Killer Mike

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=AtbFLTB_hWU

i think its just that obama running for president makes participating in the system seem like a viable option.....

Posted by youngjames | July 24, 2008 11:44 PM

http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=176907

Check out the comments on the Colbert website after the episode featuring Nas – it first struck me as funny how conversations like this take place on the web nowadays—but it’s a really interesting dialogue that sprung from a commenter who accused Nas of anti-semitism because he used Israel as an example of a country where guns that wind up in Queensbridge originate. (I just moved out of Astoria where my N/W would often roll pass Queensbridge while listening to Illmatic)

Was Nas including Israel kind of a “dog whistle” moment?? Is the commenter a bit touchy for raising the Anti-Semitism issue? Or does she have some ground to stand on?

Posted by jeremy | July 25, 2008 12:17 AM

miuzi weighs a ton

Posted by Edward | July 25, 2008 9:47 AM