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xxL: A CURRENT CRITICISM THAT's BEEN LEVEL AGAINST YOU IS THAT YOUR CONTRADICTORY. LIKE YOU BEEN THE STREET'S DISCIPLE, THUG POET, ESCOBAR, BEEN BLINGED OUT IN VIDEOS WITH DIDDY.....
NaS: "I'm totally contradictory. I was gonna make this song on this album called "Mr. Contradiction." Cause in essence, it means that I am human. There's not one person in this world that's not a living walking contradiction. It's kind of crazy that people say that. I think they're being harsh. What they trying to say is worse than what the meaning is. They haven't walked in any real shoes.
So it's just naysayers & hecklers... Cause James Brown can say, "Say it loud, I'm Black and I'm proud," and then talk about hot pants on another song. Or you know, Marvin could say "Let's get it on," talk about freaking pleasures, whatever you want, but also talk about the world. That makes you a whole. People are so caught up with the gimmick artists, so they believing what's fake. And really, it's sad. They'd rather watch the actor who make every record the same, every image the same, and that's cool. I don't get involved with that. Say what you want---- I love being a contradiction. I might get that shyt tattooed on me."
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This is the cover to it.
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"Disciples weren't pure, but they were trying to be," he says, of "Nazareth Savage," a song on the double disc that chronicles Nasir's battle between his id and his ego. "Disciples were savages on the low."
Hustlers, killers, murderers, drug dealers, even the skrippers; Jesus walked with them. And NaS feels that "CONSCIOUS" MC's like him have been held to an unrealistc double standard for too long.
James Brown can sing "Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud," then turn around and sing a song about bytches with fat ASSES. He has that right. He's here to make music, not to be a Malcolm X.
But the difference is that in Hip Hop a dope MC is the closest thing to Malcolm that this generation has. Every word is a first-person expression in an MC's own voice, so they hold more weight than the average singer or even politician. But NaS doesn't budge.
"We're human beings," he protests. "Being a celebrity is fukked up because you can do a song that affects people in a social or political way, and that was never your intention, but now you have to own up to that title? fukk NO! A lot of people were mad at Bill cosby for everything he said about "Soul Plane." He has an opinion, but he's had his trangressions in life to. The Human being is a contradicition."
It's the same arrogance that lets NaS chastise rappers on the radio for rhyming about rims while appearing in an advertisement for rim company himself. "I do whatever I want. Nothing matters," he snaps. "I'll do a rim add right now i you give me rims for all of my cars. I don't have rims on my cars , but i was a rim nikka." He pauses to shift gears. "I was an angry a lot of times to. And i was horny when I fukked that bytch, and I was high when i hit that blunt, and i was fukked up when I went to court......" he trails off into a sleepy lament that is all confession with no remorse- a modern day b-boy blues. "There is a life before music."
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This is the cover to it