Nas' new album title is continuously causing controversy. His latest album, which is supposed to be released later this year, is entitled "N***er".
New York State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D-57 District), community leader and social activist Rev. Clinton M. Miller, the pastor of Brown Memorial Baptist Church, and founders of the Abolish the N Word Project Inc. denounced a decision by the platinum-selling rap artist to have that title and urged his company, Universal Music Group, to shelve the racial slur from the album’s title.
Jeffries requested that Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli withdraw the $84 million that New York's state pension fund has invested in Universal and its parent company, Vivendi.
Universal Music Group is the world’s leading record company with a market share greater than 25 percent. Other artists under the Universal umbrella include Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Kanye West, Eminem and Snoop Dogg. Nas is on the Island Def Jam Music Group label, which is a division of Universal.
Approximately $3 billion of the New York State Pension Fund is spent on 16 major entertainment companies such as Time Warner, Disney and Universal, with $84 million allocated to Universal.
A grassroots campaign to do away with the epithet has had a groundswell of support from recent events. The New York City Council passed a resolution calling for an end to the racial slur earlier this year; Black Enterprise publisher Earl Graves pulled the plug on comedian Eddie Griffin recently when his stand up routine at a golf outing in Miami was laced with the offensive term; Seinfeld alum Michael Richards was caught on tape dropping the N-word in a rant that had comedy club goers headed for the door; and the hip hop community has been under attack in recent years for lyrics that women and blacks have called lurid and offensive.
Prior to his election to the New York State Assembly, Jeffries served as litigation counsel in the law department at Viacom Inc., and as assistant general counsel at CBS Broadcasting Inc.
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