Rapper Nas Delivers Fox News Petition, Says Network Is "Scared" (VIDEO)

** Update below: Nas delivers Fox petition to Stephen Colbert **

Rolling Stone reports on the Color Of Change/MoveOn/Brave New Films petition that rapper Nas brought to the offices of Fox News today:

About four hours after the announcement that his controversial, politically charged ninth album was number one in the country, Nas was on a small podium in front of Fox News headquarters in New York City protesting what he sees as racist attacks against Black Americans and presidential candidate Barack Obama. In a brief prepared statement, the multi-platinum rapper pointed out examples of what he and ColorOfChange see as a long racist smear campaign against the Obama family: The onscreen graphic that referred to Michelle Obama as the Senator's "baby mama"; Bill O'Reilly casually using the phrase "lynching party" to refer to attacks on the Senator's wife; referencing to the couple's infamous fist thump as a "terrorist fist jab." Said Nas, "Fox poisons this country every time they air racist propaganda and try to call it news. This should outrage every American that Fox uses hateful language to talk about the person that may be the first black president."

The rapper stood next to 19 neatly stacked cardboard boxes, with the number 620,127 taped to the side of each one -- over 600,000 signatures gathered by ColorOfChange demanding that network president Roger Ailes "find a solution to address racial stereotyping and hate-mongering before it hits the airwaves." Fox rejected the petitions, but Brave New Films says that Comedy Central's The Colbert Report will accept them instead.

Watch video of the scene from Color of Change:

UPDATE: Via the comments section, here's the music video for Sly Fox, Nas's takedown of Fox News (some explicit lyrics):

UPDATE II: Fox News wouldn't accept Nas' petition, but Stephen Colbert did. Take a look (scroll to 8:45):

Comments

[DebofMD]

Good for you, Nas. Much respect. And Nas was around before Kanye, T.I. and that scrappy-looking Lil' Wayne were even thought of.

[mary82]

There's nothing wrong with TI or Lil Wayne, best rappers out there.

[pupnyny]

Wait a minute.... NAS is a artist who depicts things which are ugly in his music. Al Pacino does the same thing when he acts as a murderous thug in godfather or scarface.

Fake news is a news organization who claims they get it fair and balanced....

Do not hold NAS to a higher standard you hold other artist... Remember Arnold killed 50 cops in the first terminator movie.... Now he is the governator!

Art is Art!!!!!!

[NYSF]

Those of you that are saying that it shouldnt be "NAS" serving this petition, should remember that NAS is an entertainer, while FOX is faking like they are a news organization. News is not entertainment!

[claylandg]

right I'm sure I'm going to listen to Nas!!! This is so funnny a rapper calling out a news stations Nas is not the one to be preaching this, People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones and believe me he not a good role model at all.

[Passenger57]

Who says you have to be a role model to call BS on someone? Who says you have to be an angel? If that was the case, no one would do it. He also never held himself up to BE a role model.
Nas' other role in this is to call more attention to it as a top-selling artist. If Joseph Schmo presented the petition,no one would care - and he'd probably get called a kook.

[elr50]

News is not entertainment? We get our reliable news from a comedy show and our comedy from a "fair and balanced NEWS" network. To the Neocons, news IS entertainment-and they love WAR movies.

[Xgal08]

Awesome, just Awesome!! Now if only this horrible news channel can get taken off the air.

[wdw101]

to bad it comes via cable and satellite.....not public air waves

nice try

[Menocu]

Nas does not need to push a specific agenda in his music because it is entertainment. It appears that he is representing himslf when pushing this particular agenda, and not his musical persona. Fox is supposed to be a non biased news source, but to date has been one of the most awful pushers of unbalanced and hurtful "infotainment" around. I support Nas on this one.

[lennix]

fox is not news its a bunch of people that are paid to keep the people that are full of hate beliving that all other races are out to get the white race

[philly282]

i haven't bought an album in five years.

i'm buying this on my lunch break...and some as gifts.

NAS, is up there with the hip hop giants...T.I., Jay Z, Kanye, LIl Wayne...but now...undoubtedly he's #1...when you combine cultural impact, music, and credibility

[wdw101]

"cultural impact" interesting choice of words how about societies impact.......lowering of moral values.....cheapen life.......if you want to shoot and kill go to iraq get paid for it.......

[LuvDaH8ters]

Whenever who is the greatest debates come out, the list will always be different, I disagree with you and think Biggie and Pac should be there but you are correct, his cultural impact has been unmatched. Also people should take note that... he is the only rapper to go up againt Biggie, pac and jay-z in a lyrical battle and still have a career, not many that went up against those giants remained relavent.

[AgentMacGyver]

Kanye a hip hop giant? Anyway, I hope that list represents the guys selling albums at this moment, otherwise it'd be ludicrous. (No, not Ludacris.)

[YWC]

What?!?

Kanye is THE Man!

Remember what he said during Katrina..? "Bush dosen't care about Black People"

He said what everyone was thinking!

[athenalong]

sorry phil -

T.I. is not even in the same arena...

Wayne, and even 'Ye have a little more growing to do before they would be in the running...

I would never even THINK of putting T.I. in the same sentence with Rakim Allah, whereas I could with Mr. Nasir bin Olu Dara.

[4real]

So people that might have done wrong cannot speak out against anything? If that's the case then we all need to shut up.

[lisakaz2]

Awesome job, Stephen. Got a hit performer on your show and a topical story. Whadda guy!

[FarOutFish]

I am sure Rupert Murdock is laughing all the way to the bank.

“I'm all for calling out Faux Noise for being racist, sexist, hypocritical, and simplisticic, for stereotyping and promoting violence. Their FCC license should have been yanked long ago.”

Fox News is a cable operation and is not under the jurisdiction of the FCC. Why is the Left afraid of a news operation that does not tow the party line.

[GoCards1978]

How appropriate that Stephen did what the Faux News people wouldn't. His Emmy reel is lengthening on a daily basis and qualify him for another Peabody Award.

[bascombe]

I second that! Indeed, well done and well timed!

[EyesWideOpen]

I'm all for calling out Faux Noise for being racist, sexist, hypocritical, and simplisticic, for stereotyping and promoting violence. Their FCC license should have been yanked long ago.
However.....who's calling them out on this? A rapper whose lyrics are racist, sexist, hypocritical, and simplistic, who stereotypes and promotes violence.
Don't believe me? Read the lyrics yourselves:
http://www.azlyrics.com/n/nas.html
As a consequence, while I agree with what he says, he has no credibility in my book until he practices what he preaches, and stops promoting his own racist, sexist, hypocritical, simplistic, violence-promoting world view for real in his own life and in his lyrics.

[JGxHitzert]

Fox News doesn't have an Fcc license because they are not a broadcaster. I would similarly disagree with your assertions about Nas. Although he did go by Nasty Nas for a while, I believe you would find his more recent lyrics to be as mature as his political stance against Fox. I wonder if you have changed your views since you were in your early twenties, Nas has been around since the eighties when he was in his teens. The difference is that no one cared what your perspective was when you were younger.

[EyesWideOpen]

Ok, I stand corrected on the FCC license as far as it being on cable, but Fox is also on the radio and there they most definitely need an FCC license.

Otherwise I stand by all my assertions and to be certain they were still valid as far as recent lyrics, I looked at lyrics for the 'Untitled' album at the link I reference above.

Fox is racist, sexist, hypocritical, simplistic, violence-promoting and stereotypes. Nas's lyrics are racist, sexist, simplistic, violence-promoting and he stereotypes anyone who doesn't agree with him. Sound familiar from Faux Noise broadcasts?

I agree with his petition but as far as I'm concerned, as a person and a performer he has no credibility. If he's changed his tune somewhat recently (I don't see that it's changed much), it's only been because of the general backlash against racist, sexist, violence-promoting lyrics which was long overdue.

I have to assume, since you're defending him, you believe he writes responsible lyrics which address real problems in an intelligent, unbiased manner.

That's your perfect right as it's my right to express my opinion that he most definitely does not as it's the Huffington Post's right to decide to publish my opinions or not.

[JGxHitzert]

Maybe its just me but I find the following song socially redeeming.

"I Can"

[Kids]
I know I can (I know I can)
Be what I wanna be (be what I wanna be)
If I work hard at it (If I work hard at it)
I'll be where I wanna be (I'll be where I wanna be)

[Nas]
Be, B-Boys and girls, listen up
You can be anything in the world, in God we trust
An architect, doctor, maybe an actress
But nothing comes easy it takes much practice
Like, I met a woman who's becoming a star
She was very beautiful, leaving people in awe
Singing songs, Lina Horn, but the younger version
Hung with the wrong person
Got her strung on that
Heroin, cocaine, sniffin up drugs all in her nose...
Coulda died, so young, now looks ugly and old
No fun cause now when she reaches for hugs people hold they breath
Cause she smells of corrosion and death
Watch the company you keep and the crowd you bring
Cause they came to do drugs and you came to sing
So if you gonna be the best, I'ma tell you how,
Put your hands in the air, and take a vow

[EyesWideOpen]

I agree that this are socially redeeming lyrics.

If this is who he 'really' is, then why write 'gangsta rap' lyrics about how cool the drug dealing life is? I can't quote lyrics here or this post would not make it through.

If, however, you read his earlier lyrics, it's clear who he really is unless he now specifically repudiates them and returns the money he made writing and performing them or donates it to anti-drug, anti-street violence causes.

[thewolfandthewildcat]

Don't you see that he is talking about how bad drugs are for you? and sending a positive message about pushing yourself toward success? How hard is it for people to read and interpret lyrics and not just read the drugs part.

[devadasi]

Who gives a god damn EyesWideOpen......at least this rapper has the balls to protest; while most Americans sit on their couches drooling in oblivion over their TV sets.

More than ever, we need street protests and peaceful demonstrations!

yours,
white girrrls for Obama

[EyesWideOpen]

I give a damn, devadasi - he's a hypocrite. He's trying to deflect from his own racism, misogyny, and celebration of street violence, and get himself on tv in the bargain. Or does make no difference to you that he routinely calls women b*****s and people of his own skin color 'n*****s'?

If you doubt this, why not read through these lyrics first?

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/nas/shootouts.html

Do you seriously think he's the first person who's ever called Fox out on its racism?

Just for a start, if you look at the lyrics which are part of the 'Untitled' album, he says he wants a black president, putting race right out in front,

I don't know about you, but I don't care if we have a white president or a black president or a purple president; I want an intelligent president with a world view which transcends racism, who knows that Iraq does not border Afghanistan, who knows that the surge had nothing to do with the Anbar Awakening, which is why I'm voting for Barack Obama.

[lawchic]

Co-sign. Nas' heart is in the right place, but he should check himself AND his fellow rappers before this whole petition thing. Calling Fox news out for being ridiculous, is like shooting fish in a barrel. But calling out yourself AND your colleagues on their materialism, misogyny, homophobia, and overall lack of creativity takes real courage.

The end.

[spiderbucket]

Here here

[YWC]

True...98% of rap acts are ignorant embaressments!

[phobophobe]

Don't know about azlyrics.com, but some of those lyrics websites are bad news. Norton stopped a virus from one, and spyware from another. Be careful!

[WasteNJ]

Nas is the best HipHop personality to take up this issue. Nobody has matched his wordplay since his debut "halftime" and the anthem "NY state of mind". Anybody who wants an example of his narrative wordplay should Youtube "I'm a gun". Even Jay-Z got verbally bruised up when he tried to "battle" Nas a few years ago.

Good for him that he's getting involved, he's got a huge fanbase that listen to what he says, off the mic.

[Vantunow]

Go Nas Go!

[Roy49]

What the hell is everyone talking about??? Most of these strings of blogs have mentioned Rap and Nas and Pop Culture and all other crap that has nothing whatsoever to do with the bigoted, filthy, narrow minded, disrespectful, undermining, garbage, that is spewed from the gutter-holes of the Fox News correspondents! Ladies and Gentlemen...let's not lose sight of the subject here. Fox News is a racist agent that is allowed by the FCC and their administrators to fill the minds of their viewers with hatemongering, filth and brainless jargon to the highest degree! Hannity, O'Reilly, and that turncoat, mother-lover, houseboy, Juan Williams (along with that cast of female bimbos and losers) are the perpetrators of this insanity driven racist and down right disrespectful newscast! Now you can see what a minority of so-called white Americans have in their minds about blacks and anything that isn’t Lilly White! Their hatred for blacks is coming out. Yeah, they’re finally coming out. I have signed that petition and I will do whatever it takes to stop their filthy, egregious, bigoted, ranting and rhetoric from continually piercing the ears of good folks and putting down the only good politician we’ve had running for president in years!

[Vapor]

Sorry,but most of the comments on Fox have been blown way out of proportion. The only one that was completely idiotic was the "terrorist fist bump". I don't even watch Fox anymore but they're pretty far from racist. I mean when is the last time you saw a story about a black person doing anything negative to a white person? Just about every network was crucifying the Duke team and proclaiming them guilty before we knew virtually anything about the accuser, and then during the Jena Joke the other cable networks were doing specials on the "poor victims" with barely a mention of the white kid who was actually attacked.

There's allot of things to attack Fox on like their reporting leading up to the war, the fact that 90% of their hosts and even reporters it seems are Republicans. But trying to say they have some racist agenda after a few comments that could be taken either way is just a really sad and a pathetic way to try and shut them up because you disagree with their politics.

[phobophobe]

You say, "I don't even watch Fox anymore but they're pretty far from racist." What?!
I'm sure lots of people could help you catch up, but just so you know, the "terrorist fist bump" was NOT the "only one that was completely idiotic."
For example, there was the middle-aged white commentator that said something like "Maybe we should just knock off Obama - I mean Osama, or maybe both."
In my opinion, FOX should have been penalized by the FCC or something for that.