More on Nas' "Nigger" Debacle

As Swagger Ready reported last week, rapper Nas announced that he planned to name his next album "Nigga," then upped the anty following outcry from Rev. Al Sharpton, cahnging the title to "Nigger." But contrary to earlier reports, there is no divide at Def Jam: They are fully onboard with Nas.

At the Manhattan premiere of "American Gangster" at the Apollo Theatre on Friday night, Island Def Jam Music Group Chairman Antonio "L.A." Reid balked at reports that his company isn't supporting Nas' decision to title his Dec. 11 album "Nigger."

"Really, who'd you hear that from?" Reid said, acting as if he were surprised. Earlier this week, Fox News reported that someone from his office said the company did not want to release an album with such an explicit name. But Reid said that isn't the case.

"We support everything our artists do, everything!" he added. "We stand firmly behind and beside our artists with pride and with pleasure. Anything Nas wants to do, I completely stand beside him. Nas is prolific; he's prophetic; he's a genius, an amazing artist of respect. So, while I'm not sure exactly all that [the title] entails, I know it's smart, so I stand behind him. That's real."

Common, Method Man and Akon support 34-year-old Nasir Jones.
"Nas knows what he's doing. He's a smart brother. He keeps his name in the game," Tical offered. "Last year, when he put out Hip Hop Is Dead, I was being interviewed, everybody was asking me what I thought about his album. ... I think it's too much emphasis on just the word. I know a word worse than 'nigger': Darfur. Real talk. I'd like to see Reverend Al take a walk out there. Let's stop focusing on the wrong sh--."

And while many in the hip-hop community are showing their faith for God's Son,the haters are making their stances known.

On Sunday in New Jersey, while on the set of his video for "I'll Still Kill," 50 Cent expressed some strong opinions about Nas' album title.

"Nas sucks," 50 scoffed. "It's nonsense, man. That's a stupid name. It doesn't make sense. Why would you title it that?"

Nas told MTV News on Thursday that he wanted to take the power out of the N-word.

"I wanna make the word easy on mutha----as' ears," he explained. "You see how white boys ain't mad at 'cracker' 'cause it don't have the same [sting] as 'nigger'? I want 'nigger' to have less meaning [than] 'cracker' ... He just wants to make basic conversation," 50 declared. "You helped him out because you asked me [about it], and people who are interested in me would like to hear the answer. But other than that, there's nothing interesting in that. It's just for shock value."

Source: MTV.com