Jesse Jackson's recent comments about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama aren't sitting well with many people, Nas included.
On Thursday (July 10), the rapper responded to Jackson's videotaped whisper on Fox News, when the reverend said, "See, Barack's been, um, talking down to black people on this faith-based ... I want to cut his n---s off." Nas says the civil-rights leader is finished.
"I think Jesse Jackson, he's the biggest player hater," Nas fumed during a conference call. "His time is up. All you old n---as, time is up. We heard your voice, we saw your marching, we heard your sermons. We don't wanna hear that sh-- no more. It's a new day. It's a new voice. I'm here now. We don't need Jesse; I'm here. I got this. We got Barack, we got David Banners and Young Jeezys. We're the voice now. It's no more Jesse. Sorry. Goodbye. You ain't helping nobody in the 'hood. That's the bottom line. Goodbye, Jesse. Bye!"
Jackson has since publicly apologized for his crass words, and Obama has accepted the apology.
During the call, Nas also revealed he originally was thinking about lashing out at Jackson and others in song on his new, untitled LP.
"It was like, 'How bad should I bash Jesse Jackson?' " he said about some of his initial thoughts when crafting the project. " 'How bad should I go after the corny mutha----as out here? How do I just stay on my game and kinda ignore some of the sh-- and get my opinion off?' It was a lot of ideas of how this could've went — real street, real disrespectful, real vulgar. I just wanted to get my sh-- off."
When Nas' album leaked to the Net more than a week ago, many hip-hop fans classified it as another classic in his catalog. Nas responded with a quick, rare video blog saying his music getting out ahead of schedule was "exciting."
"I think people get too caught up in the leak," he said. "The leak is inevitable. Everybody leaks. Everybody knows that. You gonna get leaked. It wasn't that I was just excited about the leak; I was excited about the record finally being out of my hands. It's finally out of my clutches. It's finally out in the world. You gotta embrace that. That's just people hearing music."
Among the highlights of the leaked material is "Fried Chicken" with Busta Rhymes, on which the MCs compare alluring women to eating chicken and pork; "Make the World Go Round," featuring cameos from the Game and Chris Brown on the hook; and the tuneful "Breathe," which finds Nas saying he doesn't feel free in America.