New York state Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries has requested that Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli withdraw $84 million that New York’s state pension fund has invested in Universal and its parent company, Vivendi, unless Nas changes the title of his forthcoming album from « Nigger. »
“They are profiting from a racial slur that has been used to dehumanize people of color for centuries […] it’s time for Nas and other hip-hop artists to clean up their act and stop flooding the airwaves with the N-word.” said Jeffries, according to The Brooklyn Paper.
“It’s like talking to your child about sex,” said Nas to Rolling Stone magazine. “It’s hard, but it’s important.”
“It’s probably going to make people uncomfortable. I don’t expect a lot of people to sell a record called ‘Nigger.’ Hopefully, people can open their minds up and lose some of their fear and deal with it. It’s just an album.”
Just an album for Nas but just a problem for New York State.
