As a graduate of Howard University a "black college", I NEVER use the "N" word, however people like Tom Aikins “How can anyone call these people “artists?” They can’t sing, they can’t play a musical instrument and they can’t write music. And if they stopped using the n-word, “b” and “h”, they wouldn’t have any lyrics for their songs” and others are prematurely jumping to ignorant conclusions with regards to Mr. Nasir Jones.

Nas is an artist.

His albums are PHENOMENAL... His father Olu Dara is a world renowned jazz musician and Nas's lyric are haunting and spellbinding in their truth and wisdom. Note his lyrics in "I Can" from the God Son album......

"I know I can

Be what I wanna be

If I work hard at it

You can be anything in the world, in God we trust…..”

and there are many other fabulous songs which people should listen to before rushing to judgment. In fact my 50-something year old father (National Endowment for the Humanities Grant winner and author of Classroom Calypso a book which posits “How can urban students become writers?” and uses their “culture” as fodder) is also a HUGE Nas fan. He credits Nas’s One Mic with inspiring himself and his students to write critically and creatively about social issues.

One Mic, 2004

“All I need is one mic..

that's all I ever needed in this world

to spread my voice to the whole world”

The “N”-word has found a cache... an in-crowd of discreditors who run towards its finish line. However this anti-“N” word movement though needed, lacks dimension. If there was a litmus test for “N”-word users and “N”-word abusers, Nas should be allowed to USE not abuse the “N”-word, unlike the usual suspects 50 Cent, R. Kelly, Snopp Dogg et. Al.

This anti-“N” word movement does not seem to accommodate its use for satire and social commentary. i.e Chris Rock ““n”s vs. Black People”, “n” : An Autobiography by Dick Gregory, “n”: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word by Randall Kennedy and The Last Poets ““n”s is Scared of Revolution”. They are in a knee-jerk reactionary/put out the fire modality which is now coming off as a fad and a bit self-serving. The anti-“N”-word movement is becoming its own industry, which is actually keeping the "N" word alive and dare I say “for profit”.

And furthermore who green-lit the widespread use of the sanitized euphemism "N" word anyway? It sounds very Big Bird/Sesame Street to me, as if my parents are talking, catch me eavesdropping and quickly lubricate their malignancy with "N" word banality because I am not old enough to be apart of the conversation.

I am superimposing, void of naiveté, that Nas’s use of the “N” word will be epic and poetic, searing, a modern “THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLKS" if you will. In this era of Cosby vs. Michael Eric Dyson, and R. Kelly acquittals for molestation only to comeback as the “Pied Piper of R&B”, we need a break from surreality masquerading as mundane and instead of reacting, we should prevent “the dish from running away with the spoon, while the cow jumped over the moon”.

Nas’s “n” or “n” would not be blasphemy but a symphony or perhaps cacophony (jarring us to think- an oxymoron for commercial rap) but NOT a lullaby because unfortunately most mass-marketed rap has the “N” word as a through-line, an obligatory insertion on every song on an album with no critical engagement or analysis… as Wendy Williams would say “It is what it is”.

We need artists to be provocative, to question, to excite as well as entertain. Censorship of Nas is condescending and out of context of his artistic capabilities. He is not a coon, buffoon or sell-out. He does not profiteer from the musical depiction of black-on-black crime and he doesn’t have a clothing line selling in Macys with bullet-proof-vest embossed t-shirts. Nas is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, most times he’s an activist speaking on behalf of political prisoners and the diasporic inhabitants of black Warsaws but occasionally uses “b” and “h”, (“So you ignant “n”s hear me” as Lauryn Hill so elegantly rationalized) but so did Isaiah Thomas- he is still the coach of the Knicks and Nas should be able to say what he wants. Freedom of speech for artists not entrepreneurs! Nas’s “N” word will incite an uprising, and it already has with the usual anti-“N” word suspects.

As Nas prophetically stated on God Son, 2004….

All I need is one mic..

WHAT I STAND FOR SPEAKS FOR ITSELF

THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND

Or wanna see me on top, too egotistical

To the dismay of the anti-“N” word “establishment”…..

t.b.c = to be continued……..