A New York politician is calling on the Comptroller (or controller if you prefer) of the New York state pension fund, which invests some of its money in Universal Music, or, rather, its parent company Vivendi, to withdraw that investment forthwith in protest at plans by Nas, who is signed to Universal's Def Jam imprint, to release an album called 'Nigger'.
As previously reported, Nas plans to use the 'N word' as the title of his next long player, despite the recent heightening of opposition to the use of racist words in hip hop. Brooklyn assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries says Nas and the major record company are bad, bad people for proposing 'Nigger' as an album title, telling Rolling Stone: "[Universal are] profiting from a racial slur that has been used to dehumanize people of colour for centuries. It is time for Nas and other hip-hop artists to clean up their act and stop flooding the airwaves with the N-word".
New York's Comptroller is yet to respond to Jeffries' comments. But Nas has again defended his choice of album title, saying he hopes it will help force America to address what he sees as a recent rise in racial tensions in the country. He told Rolling Stone: "It's like talking to your child about sex. It's hard, but it's important. It's probably going to make people uncomfortable. Hopefully, people can open their minds up and lose some of their fear and deal with it".