Maybe I'm just slow and I need to think more like NaS is suggesting in the picture aboveAfter listening to
NaS's new track, "Be A Ni99er Too" a couple times I couldn't help but find myself trying to figure out exactly what the hell is his point. What is he attempting to say in this song? Is there some sort of cohesive, sensible message that he's trying to convey? I swear I can't tell.
So I figured the best way to attempt to figure out what he's saying would be to transcrib the song and read the lyrics. And that's just what I did...
NaS - Be a Ni88er TooTurn your radios up. You are now allowed to listen to the radio. The real ni99ers are back, on the radio.
No slacking, no beggin, no asking, no fasting/
No disrespect to Islam no Imam or pastor/
No answer to questions the media's asking/
Why we fight each other in public/
In front of these arrogant fascists/
They love it/
Putting old ni99ers verse the youngest/
Most of our elders failed us/
How can they judge us, ni99ers/
There's verbal books published by ni99ers/
Produced by ni99ers genuine ni99ers/
So I salute my, ni99ers/
Not mad cuz Eminem said ni99er/
Cuz he my ni99er, wi99er, cracker friend/
We all Black within, ok/
We all African, ok/
Some Africans don't like us no way/
A killing happened in Johannesburg(?) yesterday/
Slain artist name Lucky Dubai(?)/
Hijacked, some say NAACP keep us sidetracked/
But I don't buy that, I buy Aston Martins/
Faster cars than, NASA causing, sparking while riding/
Critics, eat a d*ck! Journalists see I'm rich/
With this N-Word jargon I'm just starting, b*tch!/
[Hook]
I'm a ni99er, he's a ni99er/
She's a ni99er, we some ni99ers/
Wouldn't you like to be a ni99er too/
To all my k*ke ni99ers, sp*ck ni99ers/
Guinea ni99ers, Ch*nk ni99ers/
That's right, ya'll my ni99ers too/
I'm a ni99er, he's a ni99er/
She's a ni99er, we some ni99ers/
Wouldn't you like to be a ni99er too/
They like to strangle ni99ers, blaming ni99ers/
Shooting ni99ers, hanging ni99ers/
Still you wanna be a ni99er too/
True
Wake up in the morning/
Shake my third leg in the toilet/
Uzi on the nightstand/
I'm the man you go to war with/
Not the man you go to war against/
Patience, I get you/
If that means I can't sleep a whole year/
Imma get you/
I'm official not a tisket or a tasket/
I put you in the casket, with biscuit or the ratchet/
The smoke of biscuits that plants your trees/
Advance shyt weed (?), don't forsake us/
Ya'll all are fake bloods like movie make-up/
I flow tight as Tootie braces, who he hating us/
I'll be on the state bus in shackles if my 8 bust/
Cause ya'll some tellers, opposite of bankers/
I'm the shyt for ages, my clique still real cubie gangstas/
Clique still moving like Free Masons/
So if I'm on the flow from the law/
It's lodges all across the nation/
NaS is bred for the plan/
To hold a Grand Dragon's head in my hand/
Come and get me here I am/
As can sometimes be the case with NaSiR, he seems to be all over the effing place with his content. But giving him
some credit, there are other times when he can be pretty on-point (ie -
American Way). But in this song, there are only a couple places where he seems to make some points that are cohesive: the hook and a couple bars in the first verse. Which is to say that overall, this song has no real cohesive theme other than exposing his desire to say ni99er as many times as possible. Now
that's some
ni99er shyt.
In the first verse, NaS goes from asking why we (by we does he mean ni99ers or Blacks or both...WTF?) embarrass ourselves by fighting each other in public and how the older and younger generations of Black people have difficulty understanding one-another. He even goes so far as to ask how can our Black elders judge us when they're ni99ers (in the eyes of whoever NaS wants the oppressor to be, he's not very clear on that either by the way) just like us. I interpreted this as a direct diss of Bill Cosby. But hey, that's just me. But after making those semi-thought provoking set of statements he goes on to make a couple statements that I'm not sure how to interpret.
When he says, "there's verbal books published by ni99ers, produced by ni99ers, genuine ni99ers" and then salutes his "ni99ers", is this something I'm supposed to embrace and be proud of? Or is it some form of verbal satire that NaS is entertaining himself with? I can't tell. After that, he goes on to let us all know that he's not mad at
Marshall for saying "ni99er" which no one (myself included) ever really cared about years ago when it was dug up from some recording Em made when he was 16. But for some reason NaS needs to address it 4 years later but also call Em a wi99er and cracker in the same sense. Which I interpreted as a sort of ghey way of dissing Eminem. And last but not least, NaS stops to give the NAACP an indirect shot-out before talking about how he buys fast cars and is rich (again, is this part supposed to be satire or what?).
As I mentioned before, the hook is the only place where NaS seems to have all his thoughts together. Unfortunately, it comes with the price of listening to him run through a littany of racial slurs before poking fun at those who want to ridicule ni99ers while simultaneously wanting to be a ni99er (too). This is a point that has some validity to it but it would have been nice if he expounded upon it a bit in the last verse. But of course, he starts off the final verse with a description of some ni99er-esque shyt that he (and
TIPPORD) would do followed by his plan to hold a
Grand Dragon's head in his hand. So maybe that whole verse was about tooling up to battle the KKK and/or other white supremacy groups? Maybe. Or maybe it was just NaS prevaricating indirectly about a means toward Black supremacy/equality the same way he's prevaricated about being gangster-ish when everyone knows he watched all that shyt from his "
Project Window". Ha, made you look!
I'll admit that I thought NaS was crazy for calling this album "Ni99er". I figure it's mostly a publicity stunt. But I don't mind that so much if he brings attention to some serious issues and suggest ideas for moving forward (not like dumb-azz
Damon Wayans trying to trademark the N-word and use it to sell clothes). Bringing attention to racial issues and suggesting ways to move forward
is what people were calling O'Drama courageous for when he made his speech on race (which by the way, has seemingly been all but forgotten about a little over a month later), right? Maybe NaS is gonna go off on some more Black
Republican Democrat type ish.
But I'm starting to become fearful (after hearing this song) that NaS is going to have his heart in the right place but end up doing a horrendous job of conveying the points he's trying to make and thereby turning this opportunity into a fantastic debacle.
Think about it, NaS
does have a history of building up momentum and then
not living up to expectations.
But, time will tell.
UPDATE: It sounds like
NYOIL and (gasp) Peter Rosenberg agree with me. Specifically in NaS not using this whole N-word album title to really drop some knowledge. I gotta admit that I'm not a fan of Rosenberg's interviews because he tries too hard. And NYOIL is of
"Ya'll Should Get Lynched" *fame* so it's not tough to see why he might feel the way he feels.
This is the type of ish we really need to be on when we talking about Bonnie 'n Clyde, "ride or die" chicks", etc. This isn't some 'ole hood shyt, it's some of that GOOD SHYT!
