Nas Gets Sly on Fox On His Latest Album

With Fox News receiving some well-deserved bad PR of late -- from their photographic doctoring of two New York Times staffers to the backlash against their aggressive public relations techniques -- there is no better time for critiques of the machine that has taken the idea of "objective" media to a whole other level. Considering that the network's ability to churn bad press against their detractors is rivaled only by the Scientologists' practice of suing whoever speaks badly about their "faith," more critical feedback is needed.

It's little surprise that this poignant rant comes from Nas, a rapper already in the spotlight due to the name of his forthcoming album, Untitled -- the actual name is Nigger, but after much flack (from Jesse Jackson, the NAACP and others) he bowed to pressure, stating, "the people will always know what the real title of this album is and what to call it." On the track "Sly Fox," he lets loose a lyrical tirade that proves to be one of the best social critiques of his nine-album career. While Jay-Z has often proclaimed himself the king of the double-entendre, Nas is equally worthy of this crown.

Nasir Jones is one of the few men in hip-hop whose career is not only lasting, but consistently relevant; fans look forward to each album, while other rappers the same age are often met with the question: "He's still around?!" Nas not only has a penchant for titles -- his last album, Hip-Hop is Dead, was equally discussed and philosophized -- his ability to condense complex topics into manageable sound bytes without losing their depth of discussion is unmatched.

As Dax-Devlon Ross argues in his newest book, The Nightmare and The Dream: Nas, Jay-Z and The History of Conflict in African-American Culture, Nas is an icon in a lineage of icons that have bravely spoken to and about the black experience in America over the last century. While the predominant figures involved in his discussion are political thinkers, Ross argues that since the passing of King and Malcolm, and after the slightly successful torch-bearing by Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan, the flame of black consciousness was passed on to the hip-hop generation. And while many of the so-called "political" rappers proved to be nothing more than entertainers trying to fill the vacancies left in credible leadership who shied away from engaging in serious political dialogues, Nas has made this record his platform to speak from that very pulpit.

How his messages are received and what his actual ability to inspire social change is will be felt in the months after the July 15 release date. With tracks like "Black President," his outright endorsement of Barack Obama that uses a well-timed Tupac sample, and his homage to the aforementioned "Louis Farrakhan" (with its Brian Jackson-esque flute recalling Gil Scott Heron-era spoken word), he has continued to be a voice in a time and place where many voices do not have the courage to stand up and fight.

But no song on the album has the impact of "Sly Fox." Sometimes it's simply his barrage of words that offer confusing and conflicting images, just as the network does itself when claiming to be "fair and balanced":

"They monopolize the news, your views/Any channel you choose/Propaganda/Visual cancer/The eye in the sky/Number five on the dial/Secret agenda/Frequency antenna/Doctor mind bender/Remote control soul controller/Your brain holder, slave culture/What's a Fox characteristic?/Slick shit/Sensing misinformation/Pimp the station/Over stimulation/Reception, deception/Comcast digital Satan/The Fox has a bushy tail/And Bush tells lies and foxtrots/So I don't know what's real."

It has been argued that entertainers and politics do not go together, as they operate via different mediums. I disagree. I'm not saying that musicians make the best political commentators, but as Ross and numerous others have pointed out, political leaders take cues from entertainers much more than the reverse of that equation. In a visual-dominated culture, image is more important than message. The mere physical differences of McCain and Obama will play a huge role in the election, regardless of how many people give credence to the "issues."

Issues are what Nas dissects and lays out to contemplate, which is where his power lies: in the art of questioning. He confronts the network's internal paradoxes, ones that cannot be discussed without at least some amount of eyebrow raising:

"Network for child predators, setting 'em up/ Myspace pimps hoes and sluts/Ya'll exploit rap culture, then ya'll flip on us/And you own The Post, and ya'll shit on us."

And finally, their blatant political positioning in their "fair and balanced" coverage:

"Only Foxx that I love was the red one/Only black man that Fox loves is in jail or a dead one/Red rum, political bedlam/Don't let the hype into your eyes and eardrum/Murdoch on Fox/Not 18 with barracas/And he hate Barack cause he march with the marchers."

It disturbs me that one of the supposed reasons that Nas changed the album title was so it would be shelved in Wal-Mart. Yet the very fact that it will be shelved, containing the messages it does, invokes another paradoxical situation. What can we do as consumers, as music fans, as people concerned with the politics and media of our country? In his book The Great Derangement, Matt Taibbi was surprised to learn that in 2006, the United States and Britain were the only two countries in a BBC poll "where respondents trusted their government (67 percent) more than they trusted national news reporters (59 percent)." Sixth-eight percent of Americans apparently feel the news media is "too powerful."

With a forthcoming video for "Sly Fox" and a slew of timely topics dissected and discussed, Nas is a social ambassador. While he may not be involved in actual politics, he at least speaks aloud thoughts many of us think, and reminds us that our own media outlets--these blogs, our communities--can be powerful and cause actual change. The first step in this story is tuning out the noise and turning to, and becoming, actual catalysts in the direction we want to move. In a musical genre too often governed by irrelevant trends and egoistic posturing, he remains a voice reminding us that it isn't all about the self.

So it didn't surprise me when Nas gives a headnod to Ivan Van Sertima for helping change his consciousness. While sitting in Van Sertima's class at Rutgers in 1994 -- the same where I befriended Jeremy Glick, whose famous appearance on Fox's The O'Reilly Factor is the stuff television mythologies are made of -- he taught me one of my most important lessons in four years of university life: there are stupid questions. He continually taught us to examine all the angles, especially those that aren't easily found, before you declare your philosophy. This ideology stretched across the political, individual and social realms, and by the end of the course I found myself both impatient with professors who only wanted you to agree with their ideas, and much more critical of my own beliefs. Thank goodness for that; without questioning, all knowledge is useless.

Follow Derek Beres on Twitter: www.twitter.com/derekberes

Comments

[walk0nwalls]

He's still not topping Illmatic.

[KSH]

I am a big Nas fan and I was a little worried about "Nigger" being his title, only b/c I want his words to reach these young men and women out there searching for a message like I did back when Dana Owens was simply Queen Latifah and Roxanne Shante told young women you can be ambitious and a beautiful woman. Nas has a gift and and I CAN NOT WAIT til his video for "Sly Fox" comes out.

[Derek Beres - Huffpost Blogger]

The video is now out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Uqk3fxFEs

- Derek

[edtastic]

This was a great post. I rarely write praise, but i have praise for both Nas and Derek. I was watching CNN when Nas announced on Live TV his album tittle was Nigger at an award show, the black CNN anchor had a profound look of shock and disgust that without saying a word translated to any black person as "why you keep making us look bad". I am happy he dropped the tittle it was just to inflammatory and served no political purpose. The word is overused anyway so it would not have effective shock value beyond making the user look cliche and stupid, and that is not what he was going for.

Showing respect to Louis Farrakhan is a bright spot in my opinion. People don't realize you don't have to agree with everything a person says to appreciate their insights on society. Farrakhan was a great leader, flawed and all. I saw the clip on you tube about his role in the killing of Malcom X, it was truly sad , he was deeply remorseful in a way i never seen a public figure be. I knew what real regret looked like when i saw that.

Like other art forms Hip Hop needs to dissect and uplift the best of the best, hold it for posterity, play it for out children. I was at a concert with a few old school acts, Erick Sermon from EPMD said it best "forget these Mcdonalds Rappers".

[JustifiablyParanoid]

Everything he says in the song is on point. That's the thing. A lot of people out there are thinking and saying the right things.

But collectively, not enough action is being taken in order to begin seeing results. I know change is slow in coming, but I often ask myself these days what more is it going to take for people to snap out of their funks and get their sh$# together.

I don't like to think of an answer to that question.

[larry278]

This further proof that rap is poetry & Nas is the true prophet of rap.

[Syco]

rap is not poetry. its crap

Hip Hop is.

[walk0nwalls]

The distinction is dubious and poorly defined.