So at some point I believe Kanye West and 50 cents decided that rap needed something provocative to raise the steaks in album sales.
West and 50 chose a nice friendly beef: re-imaging how to diss politely. And hey when everyone gets paid, beef is win/win (see Kanye and 50 album sales).
But hindsight is 20/20 and Biggy and Pac never got the memo.
Enter Nas Escobar, who tore a page out Kanye’s PR book, the more provocative version. His album “N—a” (eliminating i-g-g) will drop Dec 11th. He’s now enraged many of the “traditional black leaders” and probably others looking for a cheery Christmas/Kwanzaa Holiday Season.
But the Associated Press quoted Nas saying:
“We’re taking power from the word. 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.”
The word “Nigga” certainly has lost much of its venom. Time has a way of doing it, as well as other black people. Remember the Wayans clan trying to take ownership for the term in a trademark application. But in order for this to half way fly he better be quoting the Dali Lama and channeling every other religious and spiritual figure in new and interesting ways.
Shock value has its limits, or does it?
