During the promo run for "Untitled" he explained his position on the word nikka/****** and what he was trying to do with the album. He talked about how in 10-20 years from that point everybody would be "nikkas" because of Hip Hop and while I'm sure that doesn't sit well with everybody it has some merit because "nikka" is not straight up synonymous with "black person" in it's common context, even among black folks. He felt like putting the word on the table the way he did would help serve to further neutralize it.
You have him addressing all ethnicity with their own racial epithets as "nikkas" too.
I don't think it was "smart/dumb", just a different perspective that has some merit in the day and age where non-blacks are saying nikka among themselves largely because of the frame Hip Hop has put around the word for better or worse. Wasn't a good look but I'm of the school of thought that it's ridiculous to expect white folks to censor themselves while they sing along to songs we create, which is what they whole Gwenyth Paltrow controversy was about.