Nas, or if you prefer his new name, Nasterisk, and Island/Def Jam are pulling off the cheesy publicity stunt of pretending to take the high ground by not calling Nasterisk’s new record “Nigger” as originally intended. The media is chasing the story like a blind puppy in a meat market and throwing the “N Word” around left and right, using asterisks, like it’s somehow better than just saying it.
Billboard has this headline:
Nas Reveals ‘N*gger’ Video, Album Cover
And, that story is the source for this..
Rapper Nas has revealed the video for “Be a N*gger Too,” the lead single from his upcoming untitled album, due July 1 via Def Jam. The clip was unveiled for media last night (May 29) at the Tribeca Grand Hotel in New York.
The treatment for the black-and-white video, directed by Rik Cordero, features Nas looking at his reflection through a mirror and rapping about racism, politics and religion, among other things, while images of people of different races sporadically appear throughout. “We all black within, okay / we all African, okay,” the Queensbridge rapper rhymes over a piano-heavy beat.
Towards the middle of the video, a scene of what appears to be a white slave owner pointing a gun at a black male slave emerges, right before the song shifts into its chorus: “They like to strangle n*ggers / blaming n*ggers / hanging n*ggers / still you wanna be a n*gger too?”
At the end, Nas, still facing the mirror, says, “F*ck you. You had it all and you threw it all away.” When asked about the significance of that portion of the video, Nas said the concept was Cordero’s idea and he “just went with it.”
Although the album won’t be titled “N*gger” as originally planned, its cover — an image of Nas’ bare back with welts similar to the ones slaves endured from lashings — “speaks for itself. It says ‘n*gger’ real loud,” he said.
Nudge, Nudge, Wink-Wink.
Way to really take a stand there, Nasterisk.
The fact is, that if they released the album as “Nigger”, nobody would really care. It would be a story for a couple of minutes and blow over but, the statement might have had some integrity that way. The media all look like buffoons for tossing asterisks around and commentator’s saying “N Word” but, so does Nasterisk and Island/Def Jam.
You’re in the same boat with the buffoons, Nasterisk because you didn’t force the label to call the record what it is. And, your label didn’t stand behind you or your statement.
Will the stunt work? Will the public fall for it? I don’t know. But, if it does, the best you’ve done is sold your art down the river. If it doesn’t, you look a chump. Either way, your bold statement, “about racism, politics and religion”, is null.
Or, even better, your your bold statement, “about racism, politics and religion”, is N*LL.
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Tags: billboard, def jam, island def jam, n word, Nas, Nasterisk, politics and religion, rap, rapper nas
Pat Darnell and Friends wrote,
After a lifetime of getting the word completely erased from my cranium… then there comes the downlow who thinks it’s marketable fodder … then I go and bang my head on marble flooring, what could the worst case be… if not this?
This sort of story makes me feel kinda like this:
TGIF: The .gif Friday Post XXVII - Multi Lock On
…stereotypical fat, balding, blind, slow Honkey, crippled crab with a broken crutch, over the hill, waning, did I say slow? white nigre, has been-never was, feet of clay, yellow-toothed caffiene addict, fart-knocking Big Bird impersonator, no count… That’s what !!
Breaks my spirit, it does… poor bastard NAS, whadda bliffit!
Pat Darnell and Friends’s last blog post..Do not Taser the Cat !!
Link | May 31st, 2008 at 11:43 am
on-the-subject-of-lashings wrote,
I suggest NAS — and his group of wraiths foaming at the mouth about the money they will make — change the name of the album to Overseer
The cover artwork with psuedo-lashes has a not-so-romantic history …
following retrieved from:
Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave, Written by Himself
“… Many tears were shed on that occasion by our friends and relatives, who saw us dragged off in irons to be sold in the human flesh market. No tongue could express the deep anguish of my soul when I saw the silent tear drops streaming down the sable cheeks of an aged slave mother, at my departure; and that too, caused by a black hearted traitor who was himself a slave:
“When spectators would come in the yard, the slaves were ordered out, to form a line. They were made to stand up straight, and look as sprightly as they could; and when they were asked a question, they had to answer it as promptly as they could, and try to induce the spectators to buy them. If they failed to do this, they were severely paddled after the spectators were gone. The object for using the paddle in the place of a lash was, to conceal the marks which would be made by the flogging. And the object for flogging under such circumstances, is to make the slaves anxious to be sold.
“The paddle is made of a piece of hickory timber, about one inch thick, three inches in width, and about eighteen inches in length. The part is applied to the flesh is bored full of quarter inch auger holes, and every time this is applied to the flesh of the victim, the blood gushes through the holes of the paddle, or a blister makes its appearance. The persons who are thus flogged, are always stripped naked, and their hands tied together. They are then bent over double, their knees are forced between their elbows, and a stick is put through between the elbows and the bend of the legs in order to hold the victim in that position, while the paddle is applied to those parts of the body which would not be so likely to be seen by those who wanted to buy slaves.”
“…Next a mulatto girl who waited about the house, on her mistress, displeased her, for which the Deacon stripped and tied her up. He then handed the lash and ordered me to put it on–but I told him I never had done the like, and hoped he would not compel me to do it. He then informed me that I was to be his overseer, and that he had bought me for that purpose. He was paying a man eight hundred dollars a year to oversee, and he believed I was competent to do the same business, and if I would do it up right he would put nothing harder on me to do; and if I knew not how to flog a slave, he would set me an example by which I might be governed. He then commenced on this poor girl and gave her two hundred lashes before he had her untied.” (113)
[Boat trip from Jefferson city to Ohio]
I left this boat at the first stopping place, and took the next boat to Cincinnati. On the last boat I had no cause to complain of my treatment. When I arrived at Cincinnati, I published a statement of this affair in the Daily Herald.
The next day Mr. Doyle called on the editor in a great passion.–”Here,” said he, “what does this mean.”
“What, sir?” said the editor quietly.
“Why, the stuff here, read it and see.”
“Read it yourself,” answered the editor.
“Well, I want to know if you sympathize with this nigger here.”
“Who, Mr. Bibb? Why yes, I think he is a gentleman, and should be used as such.”
“Why this is all wrong–all of it.”
“Put your finger on the place, and I will right it.”
“Well, he says that we took his money, when we paid part back. And if you take his part, why I’ll have nothing to do with your paper.” …So ended his wrath.
In 1845, the anti-slavery friends of Michigan employed me to take the field as an anti-slavery Lecturer, in that State, during the Spring, Summer, and Fall, pledging themselves to restore to me my wife and child, if they were living, and could be reached by human agency, which may be seen by the following circular from the Signal of Liberty…” (Bibb, Henry, b.1815 )Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave, Written by Himself!
conclusion
Will this cycle of horror not vaporize until white-slavery is installed, and youths pulverized by conscription? Well guess what…?
on-the-subject-of-lashings’s last blog post..Do not Taser the Cat !!
Link | May 31st, 2008 at 1:55 pm