Title Of Upcoming Nas Album Ignites Controversy

On December 11th, Def Jam recording artist and gifted rapper Nas will release his most recent album, Nigger, with its title already causing a stir of controversy. Despite heated criticism for the usage of the word in this context from the likes of civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton, fellow rapper Common has given Nas his support, stating how his colleague "is always bringing something new, bringing something for us to think about. He's one of the best ever. If it wasn't for Nas, a lot of cats, including myself, wouldn't be rhyming the way they do. So I mean, I know [there] is something behind what he's doing, he's making statements. That's something we need in hip-hop. Last Poets did it, Gil Scott-Heron did it, Marvin Gaye did it. We gotta keep making statements."

For his part, Nas has explained we wants to take the sting out of the N-word and eventually help render it meaningless. Stay tuned.