I’m sitting in the airport right now listening to a few guys talk about the Bible across from me and browsing the Internet. Guess what? I found something cool in (wait for it…) The Wall Street Journal. They published an interview with the fiercely intelligent rapper Nas, along with a few music clips from his new untitled album (originally slated to be titled “Nigger” as a political statement about race in America, but ultimately changed when record stores said they wouldn’t stock the album under that title). Here is my favorite moment from the interview:
WSJ: A lot of your peers have tried to branch out from music as entrepreneurs and by endorsing brands. Why have you avoided that?
N: I love the music. I don’t feel like doing anything else. I really like to wake up and look at the sky through the nice window where I live and know that the music and the people made this possible. There’s no better joy. Anything I do on the side will be very low-key.
MP3: Nas – Purple
Still… he’ll never be as cool as he was in 1994. Oh well.
1 response so far ↓
a. conwell hall // July 14, 2008 at 6:36 am |
the title of the nas album was changed primarily because universal wouldn’t release it as ‘nigger.’ this was, more than anything else, because the state of new york currently has $84 million invested in vivendi and UMG (in addition to $2.8 billion invested in major media outlets) and hakeem jeffries made a push to have the money withdrawn if the album was released with its original title. hooray for major labels receiving government subsidies and completely misguided censorship.