The Nas album people thought was ‘career suicide’: “Sorry not sorry”
Nas has never been afraid to speak his mind. In 2006, the Queensbridge rapper declared hip-hop dead because artists no longer had power. His view of the industry inspired the title of his eighth studio album, Hip Hop Is Dead.
The album title sparked reactions from rappers and fans alike, prompting opinions from Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Jeezy, Ludacris, Trick Daddy, Big Boi and other big names. Nas had no regrets about making such a bold statement in the public eye, using it to improve the genre rather than diminish it.
“I’ve always been the guy who laid everything in my head out on the line, and you could do with it what you wanted. I didn’t know any other way,” he told The Los Angeles Times. “Even with my album, Hip Hop Is Dead, I could have kept that in my head, but I didn’t. I put that out. A lot of people thought that was career suicide. My goal wasn’t to turn people against hip-hop, my goal was to encourage us all to do better.”
Released in December 2006, Hip Hop Is Dead debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 355,880 copies in its first week. The album included features from Jay-Z, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, The Game, will.i.am, Kelis, Chrisette Michele and Marsha Ambrosius. It received a nomination for ‘Best Rap Album’ at the Grammys.
Expanding more on the controversial title, Nas revealed he was taking shots at the state of the United States of America. Thinking music and everything else in society had already been done, he pushed for originality and believed hip-hop could move things forward if put in the right hands.
“When I say ‘hip-hop is dead’, basically America is dead,” he told MTV. “There is no political voice. Music is dead. Our way of thinking is dead, our commerce is dead. Everything in this society has been done. It’s like a slingshot, where you throw the motherfucker back and it starts losing speed and is about to fall down.
“That’s where we are as a country. What I mean by ‘hip-hop is dead’ is we’re at a vulnerable state. If we don’t change, we gonna disappear like Rome. I think hip-hop could help rebuild America, once hip-hoppers own hip-hop. We are our own politicians, our own government, we have something to say.”
Years later, Nas admitted he stood by releasing Hip Hop Is Dead. He even said hip-hop was in a good place, essentially saying that rappers stopped the genre from going under. “I made an album called Hip Hop Is Dead [in 2006],” he told Complex. “Sorry not sorry, but I did because there were so many times the power of this music was in the wrong hands—not artists, [but] businesspeople.
“To see that we’re here and [hip-hop is] thriving [is incredible]. The art form is crazy right now. That’s a beautiful thing, and for younger artists that are just 20 years old to realise the history that is there and was laid down for them, to look at it and go, ‘Wow, this is a long history with deep roots,’ is a great feeling.”