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YA HEARD??? - The buzz on rumors, gossip and the unconfirmed.

Nas Sporting Ni**er Down The Red Carpet; Is It Artistic Expression or Social Irresponsibility?

Posted on February 11, 2008 2:20 PM

While you guys are still grazing over the Grammy live blog, I thought I'd zero in on Nas for his, in my opinion, an appropriate T-shirt laced with a racial epithet. Watch his televised broadcast below.

nasalbum.jpg

I got an email this morning from a fan who is really torn up about this issue that I thought I woudl share.

Dear Streetz,

Last night I was horrified at what I saw walking down the red carpet. Nas and his wife Kelis, strutted down the red carpet with designer t-shirts with the word Nigger on it. I was completely shocked and disgusted.

Though many people within the hip-hop community has transformed the horrific word that was designed to make African Americans feel worthless and non human -- into a word of empowerment. The nature of the word should not be over looked. We still live in a world of eagerly racist people who won’t hesitate to express that hatred if only given the opportunity. This CD title does that for them. After Nas garners mass media exposure over this shirt who’s to say that some redneck in TN, or hell even right here in NYC, wont use this as their plight to start using this word which ultimately attacks one for their skin color. Can they really be shunned for using it if it’s walking down a red carpet and about to be packaged in a CD and sold?

I just personally feel that is a major disrespect, and disconnect for all the people who have died, and who have strive for the abolishment of that word. Whether you choose to acknowledge it or not Nigger isn’t just a word. It’s history, it’s violence, it’s blood, it’s sacrifice, it’s slavery, it’s control, it’s racist, it’s still powerful, it’s shameful, it’s everything that black people have fought against since its inception to the English language. And while I have noting but love for Nasir, and his pioneering rap career, my heart hurts at his disrespect for my people, and my ancestors.

This is truly a sad day for Hip-Hop.



I think the email says it all. What do you all think?

Got A Hot Tip:thestreetzalwaystalk@gmail.com

Posted by SOHH Streetz

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