Bill O’Reilly likes calling people pinheads. He called 50 Cent one a while ago, and, now, after joining Color of Change and MoveOn.org in a Fox News protest, Nas has joined the pinhead ranks. O’Reilly wasted a lot of breath last week deriding Nas, saying, among other things, that “new album is a bomb, a disaster, a catastrophe … Two years ago, his last album sold 355,000 copies in its first week, and this one has sold 187,000 copies. Not good. I hope I’m not a ‘racist’ for pointing that out.” Not racist, but completely wrong:
Outside News Corp.'s offices yesterday afternoon, Nas hosted an album release party-slash-protest. With his single "Sly Fox," it's clear where the rapper stands on the current state of Fox News: "Watch what you watchin’ / Fox keeps feeding us toxins / Stop sleepin’ / Start thinkin’ outside of the box / And unplug from the matrix doctrine." What a perfect anthem, then, for the rally he led outside Murdoch's HQ, where some 50 protesters gathered as black political activist organization Color of Change and MoveOn.org tried to drop off petitions with 620,000 signatures asking the network to "stop its racist smears against the Obamas and other Black Americans," like that terrorist fist jab remark and, basically, Bill O'Reilly's entire shtick. As you might expect, the boxes of petitions were not welcomed inside the building, nor was Nas' challenge for Bill O'Reilly to debate him, mostly because there'd be no opportunity for the anchor to make use of his ambush cameras.
Below, Fox News host John Gibson on his radio show very carefully not calling black people idiots. CONTINUED »
The money, which often isn’t as much as one might think, that recording artists make off of their music these days is enough to make the average person very happy, but not quite enough to fund the crazy, extravagant lifestyles that they like to publicly flaunt. Hence, the ubiquitous clothing lines, colognes, footwear lines, and other branding deals. In recent days there have been a flurry of such deals, from high brow to low brow.
Rapper Nas, who made headlines last year when he announced he would call his forthcoming album Nigger, and went so far as to walk red carpets wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the title, will finally debut his new record July 15. Nevermind that the his label Def Jam forced him to rename the album (it'll be in stores as Untitled).
But one of the tracks on there, titled "Sly Fox," might be of particular interest the readers of this site — because it's an attack on Fox News, and Rupert Murdoch's entire News Corp. Some of the lyrics go a little like this:
Propaganda / Visual cancer
The eye in the sky / No. 5 on the dial
Secret agenda / Frequency antenna / Dr. Mindbender
Remote control / Soul control [...]Fox has a bushy tail / And Bush tells lies and foxtrots / So I don't know what's real [...]
(chorus:)
Watch what you watchin' / Fox keeps feeding us toxins
Stop sleepin' / Start thinkin' outside of the box
And unplug from the matrix doctrine
Though, as is the case in all of these types of battles, this wasn't the first bullet fired: Fox has attacked Nas before, which he specifically addresses in the song. CONTINUED »
Someone at Def Jam finally figured out (or knew all along and were just trying to get the maximum amount of publicity first) that naming an album Nigger is pretty much setting yourself up for poor sales and major issues with retailers. So after all the hype, Nas’ newest album, which hits stores July 1st, will simply be called Nas. Nas said that he considers the album untitled.
Just after Maxim had to apologize for reviewing a Black Crowes album without even listening to it, Nas charges the magazine did the same thing with his album Nigger. Like the Crowes, Nas received 2.5 out of 5 stars. And like the Crowes, Nas didn't make his album available for review … because it's not even done yet.
For any of you who actually read Maxim, could you tear out the music review section of the March issue and send us the list of every CD on there so we can issue a blanket "they didn't listen to any of these" statement?
• Between funny or die, we picked funny.
• Fergie doesn't follow trends, she makes them. The girl isn't pregnant.
• Reading the liveblog of Fool's Gold is no less inane than watching Fool's Gold, in fact, it's actually smarter.
• If you work out a gym in New York, don't read this article.
• Nas can't really explain the title of his album or what he wore to the Grammys.
• Playgirl is the gayest.
Damn. Yeah, go ahead, fear the black man's dick. Why don't you discuss that in your high school social studies class? [Stereohyped]
Yesterday, we told you Nas' scandalously-named, yet-to-be-recorded album is back on track! Today, we're hearing his girlfriend Kelis (a fellow hip-hop musician best known for her hit "Milkshake," a single entendre meaning "unsolicited blow jobs") was dropped by her own record label. The reason? "She's a different kind of artist."
Sadly, not the kind of sells records, though. Or the kind who comes up with clever publicity stunts to generate preemptive hype for her nonexistent new rap album.
Remember when we told you Nas' new album would involve some incarnation of the N-word? And then we told you it wouldn't? And then we sheepishly told you it would? Well, according to the latest reports, the album whose name we can't pronounce (because we're white/Jewish) is back on track!
Which is to say record execs have "replac[ed] the “a” with an “er,” thereby making it 82 percent more awkward for white fans to inquire about at Best Buy."
And thus, 100 percent more awesome.
• What's more depressing: that people want to keep their hunting gun by their bed or that some couples can't share and are ordering two of these shot gun racks?
• We didn't mean to mock Rebecca Romijn twice in one day, but she looks so much like a certain drag queen we couldn't resist.
L.A. Reid dispels rumors (propagated by none other than Nas himself!) that Nas' upcoming album (which, incidentally, doesn't even exist yet) will be called "Nigga."
Reid's reasoning? "They would be unlikely to release an album with that title. How would that look at Wal-Mart?”
Or, for that matter, anywhere else. [Stereohyped]
Nas makes a political statement (and, conceivably, an error in judgment) by titling his forthcoming album "Nigga." thereby preemptively alienating his largely Caucasian fanbase and rendering its name unpronounceable to prep school gangstas across the country. [Stereohyped]
• Josh Hartnett and Scarlett Johansson refuse to let Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee retain title as most on-again-off-again couple
• Miami nightlife king and old Madonna pal Chris Paciello returns from 8 years in the slammer to pick up where he left off — in L.A.
• Nas opts for album title Michael Richards won't understand.
• Reichen Lehmkuhl turns his attention away from defending his relationship with Lance Bass and toward attacking celeb blogger Perez Hilton.
• When their powers combine, they are Captain Hollywood.
• Michael Richards is really, really sorry, y'all. Especially to those black people someone keeps making.
• Just when you thought Britney Spears was headed in the right direction with her comeback, she extends her stay on the Paris Hilton train wreck.
• Painful, but true. That's Chad Lowe's thoughts on Hilary Swank revealing in Vanity Fair that her now ex-husband has a little substance problem.
• Nas' ex Carmen Bryan has a new book out, ripe with claims of physical abuse. A sure-fire bookstore seller, no doubt.
• Heidi Klum and Seal welcome a baby boy, planning the event around the Thanksgiving holiday so there's be a fraction of a chance the celeb press might leave them alone.
• Somehow, 50 Cent's "Disco Inferno" didn't make it onto the list of Top Sentimental Rap Songs. [Stylus]
• But, 50 writing a children's book might get him on the top list of most non-bad-ass thing a rapper can do. [Mirror]
• Egomaniac Billy Corgan will reunite The Smashing Pumpkins … with or without the rest of the band. That's so Wyclef Jean/ Fugees style. [MTV]
• A Christian group is angry about the proselytizing chef character that Briney Spears will play in an upcoming episode of Will & Grace. At least we count on Britney to absorb any hatred that might be geared toward anyone or anything else. [CNN]
• Death Cab for Cutie and Franz Ferdinand tickets are already on the 2-for-1 sale rack? [MSNBC]
• Nas claims he will name his upcoming album the one word that will make most white people completely unable to ask for it by name at the record store. Paging Oprah, Al Sharpton, and Hillary Clinton. [Lowdown]
• The plot of CBS's new record industry-inspired show, Love Monkey, is believable. About as beleivable as the possibly that it will relaunch Jason Priestly's career. [NYT]
• Jay-Z and Nas bury the hatchet. In the name of money, of course. [MTV]
• Oh, will Johnny Cash's daughter shut the f up already? She's like the only person in the world who didn't like this movie. Plus, didn't we learn anything this year about "memoirs?" They don't really have to be true. [People]
• Time prints a list of the "5 Voices You Need To Hear." And if that's not weird enough, Ryan Adams makes the list. (Just don't call him Bryan Adams … we hear he gets real testy about that.) [Time]
• The more we see of old artists' unreleased material, remastered albums, and outtakes, the less alluring they become. Hear that, Tupac crew? [PopMatters]
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