The Root Reviews Nas

from The Root

Minus the racial slur, does Nas's latest album live up to the hype?

By Any Other Name
By Stephane Dunn | TheRoot.com

July 15, 2008--Nas' latest album, which is untitled, was still in its formative stages when the controversy erupted over it original title, Nigger, and the album shows the impact of that debate.

But just because the N-word is gone doesn't mean that its baggage disappeared; the tracks on the album, "N.I..G.G. E.R (The Slave and the Master)," "Y'all my Ni**as" and the pointed use of the word 'nigga' throughout the CD proves that point.

Whether the furor over the original title served to heighten the hype over Nas and the new music or not, it definitely sharpened Nas' lyrical fangs. Nas sinks his teeth into the media, this historic political moment, the music industry and the cultural backlash against hip-hop culture. In fact, Nas' new CD perfectly embodies the racial and political ambiguities of the last year in America. The collection features 15 tracks, including several that tap into the inspiration and hope that Barack Obama has stirred in many people—a hope that for black folk is tempered by the difficult realities of race that persist in America.

The cover offers a hint about the tenor of the album with an image of Nas' back superimposed with whip lashes. The image brings to mind the famous 1863 photo of the whip scars etched deep into the flesh of Gordon, a Louisiana runaway. In choosing this inflammatory imagery, Nas suggests that even things that can't be said, can still be real and can be depicted.

The New Yorker's latest "satirical" cover provides an almost too perfect footnote to Nas' visual and vocal meditations on the implications of Obama's potential presidency. On the last track, "BlackPresident," Nas captures the joyful yet cautious hope that many black folk felt about Obama's successful primary run. The song is bolstered by a refrain sampled from "Changes" in which the late Tupac Shakur raps: "Though it seems heaven sent, we ain't ready to see a black president."

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Stephane Dunn is a writer and author of "Baad Bitches & Sassy Supermamas: Black Power Action Films" (August 2008). She is also an assistant professor at Morehouse College.