Nas - Nigger

I was passed the new Nas album from the bootlegger at my barbershop yesterday and I finally got through the whole piece. With Nas you know you are getting lyrics. Needless to say this album shows him stepping it up a notch from last years Hip-Hop Is Dead album but his beat selection is off. The cameos from Game and Chris Brown are horrible and leave one question "why?" Chris brown is usually discard but he seems out of place on record as does Keri Hilson. She sings the hook on Nas's single 'Hero', which is ok but too poppish for my tastes.
The whole concept behind the album original title is tackling the issue behind the word "Nigger," is a pretty interesting and progressive title. I am a black man who embraces the word and sees the hypocrisy in holding a funeral for the word when the meaning is still intact.
A word on its own has no meaning behind it until someone puts meaning or establishes context behind it. "NIgger" is a very volatile word and I would not dare dismiss the blood behind those letters but you cannot bury a word. You cannot bury the meaning. We are not that far away from the race issue. As we have seen in the media depiction of Obama the Jeremiah Wright scandal that broke out putting a black mark (pun intended) on Obama relatively smearproof campaign. Obama had to go out and denounce the words of a preacher while John Mccain's conservative racist evangelicals spout the same, if not worse, racist screed that Wright was accused of but McCain is not asked to cosign the statements of his supporters. Obama's blackness entitles to him absolute scrutiny about everything. He is not a Nigger by Chris Rock's definition but he is a nigger according to the 'one-drop' rule.
I refuse to allow the word nigger to pass because at that point the history will be forgotten. The word nigger is the most tangible artifact of American history. A history that many refuse to acknowledge and even more wish it could actually be buried. The NAACPs attempt to bury the word is a feeble attempt at moving past the power of the word and I applaud Nas in his attempt to unearth what was buried alive. Too bad the album is not as powerful as I would have liked.
Here is a sample track from the album:
Black President feat Barack Obama himself.
And here is the Album Version without Obama

This track is one of the better tracks on the album.

Cop the Album July 15th, 2008.