Kobe Bryant
07-14-2008, 07:39 PM
Nas: Portrait of an Untitled Hero
http://allhiphop.com/photos/blog_pictures/images/20290770/240x240.aspx
It’s hard to tell what Nas is really thinking right now. From walking the beaten path of complaints yet again over his now Untitled album title to watching el Presidente Hov exit Def Jam to pursue the next phase of his career, Nas has a lot to question.
The only thing Nasir Jones knows for certain is that his lyrical prowess is as sharp as ever, and that tool is most certainly needed right now in Hip-Hop. His new album would suggest that he’s ready to attack with the same illmatic intensity he harbored years back. However, if you’re looking for an enraged veteran MC bitterly beating his chest about social injustice and how he’s Superman, you won’t find him here. Contrary to the fire behind his single “Hero,” Nas is pretty laid back about the whole “situation.”
Speaking semi-candidly in between airport security checks, Nas is giving a proverbial middle finger to the controversy surrounding him. He doesn’t sound like a defeatist though; more like an optimist. While Lil’ Wayne counts the figures of his album sales, the paradox of God’s Son being shamed into a corner for speaking his mind is unfortunate. He’s not mad at Weezy though, and neither should we be. As the Son’s disciples, we’re all marching to the basslines of his leaked LP in the hopes of following protocol on how to preserve Hip-Hop of substance.
The solution is in Nas’ new mantra: Kill ‘em with kindness.
AllHipHop.com: There has been some back and forth on what the real title of your album is, so just to officially clear that up…what is the title of your new album?
Nas: There is a title; it's called Untitled.
“Too many people took [the title] the wrong way. I think Al Sharpton; he didn't realize when he had lost. He lost when my record company stood with me. Jesse Jackson even had to change his tone when he saw that brilliant Black artists and White artists stood with me and understand what I'm talking about, even before they heard one song.”
AllHipHop.com: In the last verse of “Hero” you paint this really powerful imagery of what happened regarding the titling of the album. For those who really didn't absorb the words in the verse, how would you explain what happened and your decision to do that?
Nas: Def Jam had been riding with me 100 percent every step of the way since the beginning. There has been talk that they were not riding behind me, but there has never been one point where they weren't down with my freedom of expression. There was a time when I decided, when you're getting calls from the White House, when you're getting calls from opportunists in the Black community, when you're getting calls from people trying to take this thing all the way to something like that, which is going to be a fight for Universal.
So I kind of felt bad for them, because me knowing my mouth not knowing what type of s**t I was going to get us into, I kind of felt bad for them. There was a Newsweek article saying, the start of other big wigs overseas and they got really nervous about this word and me trying to handle the African-American struggle on one album. It just seemed like that way, we were about to get attacked from all angles, and part of me was like, “f**k it.” I mean those guys overseas were really scared.
I was like, “You know what? Why let them stop this record from hitting the streets when I can just get my record in stores, do what I got to do and get my record in stores?” To people, when I go to the store and I go to buy an album and there's not enough copies there, I am pissed. If there is anything that stopped it, I'm pissed. I want a record when I want it. And me wanting to put it out in December, it wasn't ready, and me wanting to put it out and keep pushing it back, pushing it back. I was getting tired of the wait, and I didn't want to wait anymore. Out of all the hoopla and all of that s**t, this is music, let me put this music out, and that will be that. And people will listen to what I'm saying and people [will] take it from there.
AllHipHop.com: What do you think they feared more; the title of the album or the content in the album? Or which do you think they should fear more?
Nas: I think the title if that is my intention – to remind muthaf**kers – watching and hanging out with rich friends was not enough to remove the realities of the world. I just look at life like, “Alright, I made it out the hood where it seems impossible to make it from and me just chilling out wasn't enough, and me helping a few people wasn't enough. It was too much going on.”
I think initially, the title, I think too many people took it the wrong way. I think Al Sharpton; he didn't realize when he had lost. He lost when my record company stood with me. Jesse Jackson even had to change his tone when he saw that brilliant Black artists and White artists stood with me and understand what I'm talking about, even before they heard one song. They know what I'm going to say before I say it, because they know what I'm talking about. So I feel like we beat them, we made them understand that we are apart of them. Where a lot of elders look down on the Hip-Hop generation and disassociate themselves and cut themselves off the younger generation, which to Black people seems insane. How could you stand for them to look down on me because my music reflects the lifestyle on the corner? That makes you look like you're out of touch, so that was my message.
But then the record started to turn into the attention only for people to battle me with the title, and that's not what this s**t is about. This s**t is about for my kids, for rap fans and we laughing in the face, throwing a middle finger back in the face of those who want to use Hip-Hop as a scapegoat, and use Hip-Hop as a platform to grandstand on, and point the finger at us, and say that we're responsible for the crimes of America because of the music. It was a middle finger back in their face, like everybody forgot them, everybody left the hood, everybody made it, and everybody got educated and got the hell out.
And we made it by talking about what was happening there, whether America likes it or not, no matter how ugly language, no matter how many people get shot at the concert, no matter how many girls want to dress in tight jeans and be called hoes and bi**hes on record. There is hoes and bi**hes in the world, there are ignorant n*****s in the world. It's brilliant men in the world; it's brilliant women in the world. Everybody needs they music to dance to or move to. If the music reflects the reality of the corner, the block, then we are going to expose the people who ain't of that and really don't want to see us come off the block with that attitude. What we did was turn that into money. I'm explaining that on some of my songs too.
We are turning our nightmare into a dream, into a great dream, a beautiful dream come true. And that is a beautiful triumph, an incredible triumph that needs to be awarded, not looked down on. And that's what thy’re doing to us, looking down at Hip-Hop, so by stating the album title “n****r” it was a middle finger back in those conservative, nose in the air, don't know where I came from, mad at my own people, lost and confused Negroes. This album is for them.
http://allhiphop.com/photos/blog_pictures/images/20290770/240x240.aspx
It’s hard to tell what Nas is really thinking right now. From walking the beaten path of complaints yet again over his now Untitled album title to watching el Presidente Hov exit Def Jam to pursue the next phase of his career, Nas has a lot to question.
The only thing Nasir Jones knows for certain is that his lyrical prowess is as sharp as ever, and that tool is most certainly needed right now in Hip-Hop. His new album would suggest that he’s ready to attack with the same illmatic intensity he harbored years back. However, if you’re looking for an enraged veteran MC bitterly beating his chest about social injustice and how he’s Superman, you won’t find him here. Contrary to the fire behind his single “Hero,” Nas is pretty laid back about the whole “situation.”
Speaking semi-candidly in between airport security checks, Nas is giving a proverbial middle finger to the controversy surrounding him. He doesn’t sound like a defeatist though; more like an optimist. While Lil’ Wayne counts the figures of his album sales, the paradox of God’s Son being shamed into a corner for speaking his mind is unfortunate. He’s not mad at Weezy though, and neither should we be. As the Son’s disciples, we’re all marching to the basslines of his leaked LP in the hopes of following protocol on how to preserve Hip-Hop of substance.
The solution is in Nas’ new mantra: Kill ‘em with kindness.
AllHipHop.com: There has been some back and forth on what the real title of your album is, so just to officially clear that up…what is the title of your new album?
Nas: There is a title; it's called Untitled.
“Too many people took [the title] the wrong way. I think Al Sharpton; he didn't realize when he had lost. He lost when my record company stood with me. Jesse Jackson even had to change his tone when he saw that brilliant Black artists and White artists stood with me and understand what I'm talking about, even before they heard one song.”
AllHipHop.com: In the last verse of “Hero” you paint this really powerful imagery of what happened regarding the titling of the album. For those who really didn't absorb the words in the verse, how would you explain what happened and your decision to do that?
Nas: Def Jam had been riding with me 100 percent every step of the way since the beginning. There has been talk that they were not riding behind me, but there has never been one point where they weren't down with my freedom of expression. There was a time when I decided, when you're getting calls from the White House, when you're getting calls from opportunists in the Black community, when you're getting calls from people trying to take this thing all the way to something like that, which is going to be a fight for Universal.
So I kind of felt bad for them, because me knowing my mouth not knowing what type of s**t I was going to get us into, I kind of felt bad for them. There was a Newsweek article saying, the start of other big wigs overseas and they got really nervous about this word and me trying to handle the African-American struggle on one album. It just seemed like that way, we were about to get attacked from all angles, and part of me was like, “f**k it.” I mean those guys overseas were really scared.
I was like, “You know what? Why let them stop this record from hitting the streets when I can just get my record in stores, do what I got to do and get my record in stores?” To people, when I go to the store and I go to buy an album and there's not enough copies there, I am pissed. If there is anything that stopped it, I'm pissed. I want a record when I want it. And me wanting to put it out in December, it wasn't ready, and me wanting to put it out and keep pushing it back, pushing it back. I was getting tired of the wait, and I didn't want to wait anymore. Out of all the hoopla and all of that s**t, this is music, let me put this music out, and that will be that. And people will listen to what I'm saying and people [will] take it from there.
AllHipHop.com: What do you think they feared more; the title of the album or the content in the album? Or which do you think they should fear more?
Nas: I think the title if that is my intention – to remind muthaf**kers – watching and hanging out with rich friends was not enough to remove the realities of the world. I just look at life like, “Alright, I made it out the hood where it seems impossible to make it from and me just chilling out wasn't enough, and me helping a few people wasn't enough. It was too much going on.”
I think initially, the title, I think too many people took it the wrong way. I think Al Sharpton; he didn't realize when he had lost. He lost when my record company stood with me. Jesse Jackson even had to change his tone when he saw that brilliant Black artists and White artists stood with me and understand what I'm talking about, even before they heard one song. They know what I'm going to say before I say it, because they know what I'm talking about. So I feel like we beat them, we made them understand that we are apart of them. Where a lot of elders look down on the Hip-Hop generation and disassociate themselves and cut themselves off the younger generation, which to Black people seems insane. How could you stand for them to look down on me because my music reflects the lifestyle on the corner? That makes you look like you're out of touch, so that was my message.
But then the record started to turn into the attention only for people to battle me with the title, and that's not what this s**t is about. This s**t is about for my kids, for rap fans and we laughing in the face, throwing a middle finger back in the face of those who want to use Hip-Hop as a scapegoat, and use Hip-Hop as a platform to grandstand on, and point the finger at us, and say that we're responsible for the crimes of America because of the music. It was a middle finger back in their face, like everybody forgot them, everybody left the hood, everybody made it, and everybody got educated and got the hell out.
And we made it by talking about what was happening there, whether America likes it or not, no matter how ugly language, no matter how many people get shot at the concert, no matter how many girls want to dress in tight jeans and be called hoes and bi**hes on record. There is hoes and bi**hes in the world, there are ignorant n*****s in the world. It's brilliant men in the world; it's brilliant women in the world. Everybody needs they music to dance to or move to. If the music reflects the reality of the corner, the block, then we are going to expose the people who ain't of that and really don't want to see us come off the block with that attitude. What we did was turn that into money. I'm explaining that on some of my songs too.
We are turning our nightmare into a dream, into a great dream, a beautiful dream come true. And that is a beautiful triumph, an incredible triumph that needs to be awarded, not looked down on. And that's what thy’re doing to us, looking down at Hip-Hop, so by stating the album title “n****r” it was a middle finger back in those conservative, nose in the air, don't know where I came from, mad at my own people, lost and confused Negroes. This album is for them.