Nas and Nick Cannon – What Are They Doing?

Nas - popular 10 years ago

Recently Nas (a Hip Hop artist) and Nick Cannon (married to Mariah Carey) produced a video and released it to the world. In this video they speak of white executive domination of Hip Hop music. Nas narrates the intro, give an ominous warning and then the video plays. You have to see this because I do not think I can explain any more.

Nick Cannon - Besides marry Mariah who is he?

I do not get it. Is this just a publicity stunt? Are they serious? Either way, I think it is plain stupid. I will break it down the way I see it:

• By signing recording contracts the artist is saying “I want to make money”
• If it was just about the music they would just write, compose and play
• When making music or music videos the artist can say NO if they did not like any idea presented to them
• If an artist feels so strongly that the image created is not the image they want to project they can break the contract and fight it out in court
• Many Hip Hop artists have become multi-millionaires due to a largely white audience
• I have never seen a Hip Hop artist act anything like this
• If the shoe was on the other foot there would be outrage in the media

This video is just a dumb statement. They are apparently talking about “white proliferation” of Hip Hop but every day I see more and more white kids with drooping pants and crooked hats (a look inspired by Hip Hop artists). I have young family members that listen to Hip Hop more then any other style of music. Black slang has made its way into almost every kids vocabulary and it dominates most young people’s attempts to be “cool” in a conversation.

No matter what the case, there is always somebody to stand up to try and start a movement. Whether is to “too white” or “too black” somebody always gets on their soap box.  Who cares what color the artist is or what color the executive producing it is. If it is good, it will sell and if it isn’t, it will fail! I always hear or cross-over and how it is a good thing. Like when country singers make it to the pop charts or when R&B singles dominate the Top 40. Why can’t music cross-over racial lines? Is that bad?

I will continue to teach my kids that good music is good music and if they like it then enjoy it….regardless of the color of the artist.  BTW – The current #1 and #8 spots on Bill Board’s Top 10 are held by the Black Eyed Peas, a racially diverse group that combines Hip Hop and R&B!

The Black Eyed Peas

That is a good thing!