So there’s this.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/la-et-nas12-2008jul12,0,6432984.story
Before the Nas Stanley Kowalski’s start bellowing “Stella (matic)” in the comments section allow me to make a few brief points:
1. I do believe Nas is sincere. Unfortunately, he’s a victim of the imperial bloat of his own mind. When enough people tell you you’re a genius you start to believe it. Not every poet is a prophet and vice-versa. Unfortunately, Nas isn’t aware that the two terms are mutually exclusive. He’s rap’s Ezra Pound. Not the good Pound. The ranting, controversy-stirring fascist of the end. Or did you find “hip-hop is dead?” an example of extraordinary liberalism?
2. As Tal Rosenberg saliently points out: “Nas forgets that what made him great when he was younger wasn’t “hunger,” it was that he was deft at being on the outside looking in rather than from on top polemicizing to people who couldn’t care less. Nas is about observation, not contemplation. The latter breeds the former instead of the other way around.”
3. With the exception of “Fried Chicken” and “Queens Get the Money,” these beats are fucking awful.
4. Wale’s “The Kramer,” has more complexity and nuance in just one song than does the entirety of Untitled. Hell, I’d probably even argue the same for “Get Cha’ Issue” off II Trill.
5. I’m sure someone is going to chime in with the standard, “aww…stupid white boy, what do you know about racism or the African-American experience” card. And yes, I understand that few white people outside of maybe John Howard Griffin or Brother Ali can truly ever understand what it’s like to deal with racism on a daily basis.
But Nas’ critique feels stale to me, the sort of divisive old-guard radicalism that ultimately helped tear the country asunder, whether done by Black Panthers or by the ultra-right wing wack jobs that hijacked the government for the last eight years. Thankfully, it’s a different time and America’s on the precipice of hopefully electing its first black President, one whose ideology is predicated upon uniting people across divides and ending exclusionary politics. Of course, this will never redress hundreds of years of racial ills, but at the very least, it’s a damn good reason to be optimistic. Nas seems reactionary, stuck in the past, kicking, screaming, refusing to move on.
I won’t get into the problematic glorification of Farrakhan either. Because even though the man has been quoted saying, that “false Jews promote the filth of Hollywood that is seeding the American people and the people of the world and bringing you down in morals…The wicked Jews that promote lesbianism and homosexuality,” I’d probably be willing to let it slide if the record sounded good. Hell, Erykah Badu gives a similar nod to Farrakhan on New Amerykah and her album remains a lock for my top-10. Besides, I still blame the Jews for Gene Simmons.
Ok. You can hate me now.
Download:
MP3: Nas-“Queens Get The Money”
MP3: Nas ft. Busta Rhymes-“Fried Chicken”
