http://allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2010/03/15/22147322.aspx
Yes, Mo’Kelly says PURSUE. Until he actually passes the test, Mo’Kelly is not impressed. And in actuality, a GED isn’t impressive. It “can” be admirable depending on the circumstances, but with NAS it’s just not of those occasions. For all of you out there who have battled Mo’Kelly tooth and nail over whether it “mattered” that Nas only had a 6th grade formal education, your apologies are accepted.
One can only assume that his lack of formal education played heavily into why he didn’t realize just how badly he was taken in his divorce. Believe it or not, math, english and science classes matter. It doesn’t matter if you’re a millionaire if you don’t have the tools in which to manage the money.
Ask Mike Tyson. Ask MC Hammer. Ask 452 members of the NBA, both past and present.
Anyone wishing to name their CD “N*****” in the 21st century and debating intellectuals on the merits of such buffoonery should at least be read up and wield some common sense. Maybe the light bulb finally switched on for him.
Maybe.
RELATED:
NAS is a Comedian…Not an Intellectual
The Lessons to Be Learned Through Nas’ Failure
Nas Has No Business Naming Coons
[Stay tuned…the new mrmokelly.com website is coming to you in 2010. Set your browsers now.]
17 responses to “Rapper Nas to ‘Pursue’ GED”
I for one, don't understand how these rappers don't go and get their GED after making all their money. How can you read and interpret your contracts when you haven't "pursued" an education. That's just STUPID!!! I didn't know Nas had only a 6th grade education. Come on man,I wish him success in his "pursuit".
I am agreeance with you Mo Kelly! These thugs sing and taunt the upstanding kids in their raps, call those seeking an education lame and square, but can't even read the word lame or square if they saw it in print-what a shame. It is time out for our community (or anyone else's) to keep acting like this mess is cute! It is NOT cute to be illiterate! It's not cute to be reading at a third grade reading level at 30 years old. Fantasia has a reality show in which she revealed that she is only at a seventh grade level. What a shame.
My main problem wasn't Nas' lack of education, though it's a big part of it. It's that he was all-too-willing to lecture young people on how voting and (formal) education were unimportant. He thumped his chest about having street knowledge and being a former drug dealer (i.e. keepin' it real).
And now I'm supposed to be "proud" of the fact he's chasing a GED (meaning, he's having to study, can't just go take it)?
Sorry, I'm not impressed. He's spent way too many years spitting ignorant rhymes and defending his ignorance. What's funniest is that young people today find him to be so "profound" or "deep."
Yeah, if you never open a book!
W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou and 55 others are far more deep and profound than anything he's written on his best day or could hope to write. This sliding scale of "brilliance" is laughable. Yes, he's a brilliant LYRICIST. Meaning he can rhyme with the best of them. But newsflash, rhyming doesn't a priori mean you're somehow profound or insightful. People often confuse verbal dexterity or rhyming ability with deep content. It's not the same thing. If people read more, they'd readily realize that Nas is not opening any new doors or enlightening untouched minds. He's an "intellectual" only to those who don't know what one is. Biggie was also a brilliant lyricist, but profound he was not.
Yes, maybe one day he can hang his GED right next to his gold and platinum records. He may not be able to read everything on the plaques, but at least he'll have his GED to hang next to them. That is…if he passes.
Mo'Kelly is out there every single day trying to beat back ignorance and stereotypes and he wants to release a CD titled "N*****" and "EDUCATE" the masses? It's an unfunny joke. The one with the 6th grade education and didn't vote is out there trying to lecture folks on civics and political fare? Really? Honestly?
This may sound harsh, but you can't sell drugs (literally and figuratively) and other forms of ignorance for the bulk of your life and look for some love when you get religion for 10 minutes. Not here at least.
And I haven't even STARTED on the fact that he's trying to use this for POSITIVE PRESS! Does he have another CD on the way?
Oh lookie here NAS CD with Damion Marley…May 2010. What a coincidence.
Joker.
On the other hand, Mo, you don't have to have lived an unimpeachable life in order to be a positive role model.
There is something to be learned from those who bumbled along, then "got it."
And there is a growing list of those who could represent such lessons, if and when they ever learn them…
Walt, #1, I don't believe he "got it," as evidenced by the timing of the announcement. #2, there's no acknowledgment of ALL the contradictory behavior prior to now. All the songs and lyrics trumpeting how he didn't need a formal education or school or how people shouldn't vote. It's like none of that ever happened.
No, he doesn't have to be unimpeachable, but there is such a thing as absolute BS.
For example Walt, I've yet to hear him say anything about how selling drugs is "bad." He's not exactly turning over a new leaf with the N-word. Remember, this guy has a new gimmick each CD. In 2007 he was trying to lecture Jesse Jackson and the rest of us on the merits of the N-word and how we should stay out of the street's business.
Now he's seen the light and wants his GED? But has nothing to say about drug dealing or his other foolishness?
No, that's not saying he has to be unimpeachable, but one has to tell the full story of Nas if we're going to honestly look at what this is…a sales promotion gimmick on many levels, because the content of WHO he is largely has not changed.
Let us not forget…when he tried to release his "N****" CD, he was adamant that he wasn't going to change its title when Jackson, Sharpton and others implored him to do so.
When Wal-Mart said they wouldn't carry the CD…he changed it.
He's a joker. I've received thousands upon thousands of hate emails on this subject over the years from Nas supporters. Every single time Nas has proven me right. EVERY single time.
It's not a coincidence that the announcement was made with an approaching CD release date. The "story" headline is that Nas is pursuing his GED, which is everywhere…yet in every story is also the mention of the CD with Damion Marley. It's transparent and indicative of what Nas does.
I'd more believe it if he announced he was taking time off from music altogether…like Ty Warren taking time off from football. I'd more believe it or appreciate it if he did it without some financial carrot dangling in front of it. This is quintessential Nas.
Notice that in the same speech to the young people, no mention about how selling drugs is wrong. You'd think they'd need to hear that too. That's only SLIGHTLY important in the discussion of role models. Selling drugs is ok…just as long as you eventually get your GED…oh and be sure to go out and pick up my new CD in May…one which is available in Wal-Mart too. I have a divorce to pay for.
And speaking of divorce, this is the same man who attended the Grammys with his then wife in matching his and her "N*****" t-shirts to help promote the aforementioned CD.
He has PLENTY to make up for when it comes to sending the right message to impressionable youth.
I agree Walt, but how many kids and young adults did they mess up first? That kind of eliminates a little of my sympathy for them.
All true, but:
As an outside looking in, not with any great degree of specificity, I've always seen Nas as different from many others. The lyrics with which I'm familiar speak to issues of black empowerment.
If he glorifies drug dealing, I missed that.
Lots of other rappers glorify thug life, which I've never seen him do…again, I may have missed it, since I don't study his work assiduously.
Has he ever glorified getting shot, like so many do? It's almost like if you haven't been shot, you aren't real enough.
And now it seems, also, you need to do a hitch in jail too, in order to have cred.
It's been my somewhat distant observation that Nas chooses other ways, more "positive" ways to relate.
And let's face it: "N-word" is far from a settled issue, as we know all too well.
Is there any other way to resolve it than by talking about it?
Nas is perceived by some as a conscious rapper. But with greater analysis, his "conscious" songs maybe at best make up 10-15% of his overall body of work. It's a misrepresentation of his work. And I don't know if he's trumpeted a jail stint, but he has on many occasions trumpeted his drug past as validation of his supposed authenticity.
"
I'm sorry, but for me, it is a settled issue. There is no in-between and is a faux debate. Just because people wish to argue the merits of a point it doesn't somehow make the argument meaningful. Some people still argue that African-Americans are intellectually inferior. Same applies.
I will say this in regards to the N-Word. You don't sell it for 18.95 under the guise of being "socially conscious" and then more than half of the CD is non-conscious in nature.
Nas is a walking contradiction.
here,here!!!! You said it all as usual Mo"kelly!!!
Morris,
The fact that you have your mind made up about something doesn't qualify it as "settled."
You are free to stop discussing a topic which *you* consider settled, but the discussion will continue as long as *others* do not consider it settled.
And I would challenge you in this regard: If you consider the issue settled, why does it keep coming up on this blog?
Walt, some things are inarguable…irrespective of whether people choose to argue about them. There are people who argue the Holocaust didn't happen and we didn't land on the moon.
Whether the N-Word has any merit is in the same basket. The issue is settled because I don't entertain any type of foolishness as to "how" or "why" it could under any circumstances be beneficial. It comes up on this blog because there's a new batch of young people every year who have to learn the same lesson. I don't discuss it because it's "worthy of debate" I discuss it to obliterate it. When you let stupidity run unopposed, it then passes as legitimate and true. And if somebody came in here saying the Holocaust didn't happen or Neil Armstrong is a fraud, I would tee them up too for the same reasons.
You may call this semantics…but it isn't. The world is round, the sky is blue thanks to the refraction of light and the N-word has no place and is of no benefit to African-Americans other than as a historical footnote as to the subjugation of Black people. It is not a term of endearment and is not to be sold for 18.95. There is no debate because the etymology and history of the word can't be changed. It is an empirical fact much like the non-flat nature of the world. Unless you can go back in time…the etymology and history of the word can't be changed. There is no argument to be had.
And as regards Nas, considering he participates in the free market where ideas and products are freely exchanged, is he tainted because he is not so singular in his vision that nobody listens?
In other words, is he tainted because he chooses to entertain as well as represent a degree of consciousness?
Does he not deserve some distinction from others who make no such effort?
I look at Nas in a way similar I looked at Stanley Tookie Williams (Crip co-founder put to death). I look at you in terms of your body of work. Williams spent more than 20 years robbing, raping and killing. He spent the rest of his life in jail and writing children's books about the evils of gang life. You tell me, what had the greater impact?
This isn't about being tainted so much as being true. This isn't about him getting an education, this is about him selling more CDs under the guise of re-inventing himself. This is a ploy, a gimmick because it does not in any way address how he got to this point. There is a pending CD attached to the release/news story. It's disingenuous. He's spent a CAREER saying formal education is unimportant and now because he's willing to get his GED that somehow matters? No, not when you look at the fullness of what he's espoused along the way. If he were truly about setting the positive example, there are a dozen other things he could and should address either simultaneously or prior to getting his GED.
If he has his GED and is still making songs about Ooochie Wally or You Owe Me or other misogynistic fare…what does that mean? If he has his GED and is still calling every Black man "Nigga" on his music…what does that mean?
It means the GED served no purposed other than providing an avenue for press to market a CD during a time in which his career has waned.
In all seriousness. I would've more believed Nas' sincerity if he simply got his GED and didn't tell anyone until he got it and didn't announce it with CD promotion attached to it. If it's all about being a positive example, then BE that positive example. He's not doing that, he's trying to sell CDs.
Back to the beginning:
I don't care that Stanley Tookie Williams was writing children's books about staying out of gangs. I much more cared about all the people he robbed, raped and killed for which he was NOT held accountable.
How many millions of CDs has Nas sold with his messages of anti-formal education and anti voting? How many millions of minds over the years has he impacted? And now that just goes away with the ANNOUNCEMENT that he's PURSUING his GED?
Sorry, that's not enough for me. That's giving maximum credit for the most minimal of efforts. Won't do it.
Parallel: Snoop dog said once upon a time that he was giving up weed and other drugs. That didn't last long. So if Nas doesn't get his GED or goes back to his same old same old…then what? He would have reaped the benefits of the press of the announcement while doing NOTHING.
He should've GOTTEN the GED, then said something…and said it without a CD release on the horizon mentioned in the story.
Morris,
Well put. Indeed, inarguable.
Well back in the day, my mom did PatSajack mothers nails and she said she liked colored people…Pat is trying to figure out his place for retirement. he wants to be remembered for something other than turning that wheel. He doesn' know better. However, I am sure he will take a hit for those comments.