POLITICIANS JOIN FIGHT AGAINST NAS' N-WORD

Plus, poet Saul Williams joins the controversy with 'NiggyTardust' part of upcoming CD title.

Brooklyn assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries is calling on the New York Comptroller to pull an $84 million state pension fund invested in Universal Music Group and its parent company Vivendi unless Nas changes the title of his new album "N**ger."


“[They are] profiting from a racial slur that has been used to dehumanize people of color for centuries,” Jeffries tells Rolling Stone. “It is time for Nas and other hip-hop artists to clean up their act and stop flooding the airwaves with the N-word.”

Meanwhile, Nas also said this particular title was supposed to grace his last album, "Hip Hop Is Dead," but "the climate wasn’t right, and 'Hip Hop Is Dead' is also what I was feeling," he explains. "That went first, and now I’ve got to get this one off my chest.”

So what of all the controversy? “It’s like talking to your child about sex. It’s hard, but it’s important,” he tells Rolling Stone. “It’s probably going to make people uncomfortable. I don’t expect a lot of people to sell a record called N**ger. Hopefully, people can open their minds up and lose some of their fear and deal with it. It’s just an album. It’s one piece of the many things I do, and this will be one of my favorite pieces.”

And despite early reports to the contrary, his label Def Jam says it's 100 percent behind the title.

“It will be certain record stores that will be scared to deal with it. The record label is gung ho, and it’s ready to go,” Nas said.


In related news, poet Saul Williams may join Nas as a target of protest with the announcement of his upcoming album title, "The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!," produced by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and mixed by Alan Moulder.


The title is a play on David Bowie's album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust.' Williams announced the news on his Web site, stating: "Most people aren't aware of the world of art and commerce, where exploitation strips each artist down to 'n**ger.' Each label, like 'apartheid,' multiplies us by our divide and whips us 'til we conform to lesser figures ... the only way to choose is to jump ship from old truths and trust dolphins as we swim through changing ways."

Tracks on the album include "Black History Month," "Tr(n)igger" and "NiggyTardust."

According to MTV.com, the album will be available Nov. 1 in digital form on the Inevitable Web site, which allows fans the choice to either pay $5 for the album — or nothing at all. For five bucks, customers can get either 83MB (high quality) or 128MB (very high quality) MP3 files. A third $5 option is also available, in the Free Lossless Audio Codec format, which is similar to MP3 but doesn't lose quality in the compression process — that version has CD quality (395MB) but isn't playable on iTunes or Windows Media. The free option provides an 83MB zip file that contains lower-quality, DRM-free MP3s of the songs.

WHO SAYS NAS' NEW CD WON'T BE NAMED AFTER THE N-WORD?

Apparently Fox news got it all wrong when they reported that the powers that be at Def Jam said the label was not releasing Nas' new project named after the N-word.

Def Jam head, LA Reid, told MTV that he has no problem with the project whatsoever. As far as he's concerned, Nas can do no wrong.

"We support everything our artists do, everything!" he added. "We stand firmly behind and beside our artists with pride and with pleasure. Anything Nas wants to do, I completely stand beside him. Nas is prolific, he's prophetic, he's a genius, an amazing artist of respect. So, while I'm not sure exactly all that [the title] entails, I know it's smart, so I stand behind him. That's real."

OK, so you may be wondering just why is Nas doing this. The MC says his intent is to take the sting out of the N-word.

"We're taking power from the word," he told MTV. "No disrespect to none of them who were part of the civil rights movement, but some ... in the streets don't know who (civil rights activist) Medgar Evers was ... they know who Nas is," the rapper said, referring to the civil rights leader slain in the 1960s.

He also had a message to the "older people" who don't know who Nas is and what a street disciple is.

"Stay outta this (expletive) 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."

Finally, not only is the album apparently still in the pipeline for a Dec 11 release, but the title has now been changed from "Nigga" to "Nigger."

DEF JAM DENIES 'N-WORD' FOR NAS ALBUM

A source close to Island Def Jam Group chairman Antonio "L.A." Reid is now claiming that the new album from Nas will not be called the N-word as the rapper had announced during a concert Friday night in New York.

"There is no album release by Nas on the release schedule at this point," the source told FOX News. "And they would be unlikely to release an album with that title. How would that look at Wal-Mart?"

Before anyone from Def Jam could even address Nas' statement, Rev. Jesse Jackson and the NAACP had already issued comments condemning the artist for the announced title.

"The title using the 'N' word is morally offensive and socially distasteful," Jackson said in a statement. "Nas has the right to degrade and denigrate in the name of free speech, but there is no honor in it. Radio and television stations have no obligation to play it and self-respecting people have no obligation to buy it."

"I wish he would use his talents to lift up and inspire, not degrade, making mockery of racism," he added.

"We will not support and we will not continually be assailed by other individuals who want to use that type of term in our presence" said national NAACP spokesman Richard McIntire, according to Fox News. "This has gone on long enough."

COME ON NAS, WHY?

NAS TITLES HIS NEW ALBUM 'NI**A'

Why Nas? Why?! the rapper has decided that the N-word - the five-letter slang version - will be the title of his new album due in December from Def Jam.

The rapper announced the news while headlining the last stop of the Sneaker Pimps Tour on Friday at New York's Roseland Ballroom.

According to MTV.com, he told the crowd that his new album will be titled "Nigga," a name he had planned to call his previous album until deciding at the last minute to use "Hip Hop Is Dead" instead.

A month before the new album arrives, Nas's greatest hits collection is scheduled to drop on Nov. 6. A video for one of the two new songs on the project, "Surviving the Times," will be shot soon, according to MTV.