Kim Osorio's Blog

I’ve been sitting by watching how Nas has taken this whole anti-Fox News protest, spinning it into one of the biggest publicity moves of his career. Bravo! For that, I want to commend him, because in this horrible music sales climate, I have to say, that hip-hop is suffering so much, I support anyone who figures out a way to SELL RECORDS…watch here…

BUT

Let me digress… It’s starting to bother me how quickly people (mainly the media) jump on the bandwagon of a so-called “good cause.” For one, we’ve all known for years how conservative (whether or not it’s disguised racism is not for this discussion…for that one, my legal expertise would call for more research)…how conservative Fox News is. I have often gone on Fox News to defend hip-hop’s position when it has been attacked. I sat across from Bill O’Reilly when he tried to knock one of ours for giving back to the community. I went on the Big Story with Jon Gibson when they tried to call another artist…an R&B one…a gangster rapper and contributed to him losing a major endorsement. When they’ve attacked hip-hop in the past, I have, and so have many others, gone there to make sure hip-hop has a voice. Now, if some of our artists choose to never represent hip-hop to these audiences (the Fox News-es and the like) then I will say that is the choice they have. But when you take a stance, and you decide to take a stance for a cause like this, I am going to question your intentions, because it means that if this issue came up and you weren’t promoting your album, you’d be sitting on the sidelines not doing much. Now let me say that Nas isn’t wrong for this….he is for his own cause. Because he has an album to sell and promote. We are all ultimately doing things for our own cause? What is bothering me is how quickly the media (a lot of bloggers who just want to be down) jump on his bandwagon and start covering this story without giving it any context. So everyone is just applauding and giving this super-duper coverage without posing any questions. So my beef is more so with journalism and the hip-hop media right now. Here are a couple of times when I would have liked to hear Nas say something…

1. when BET did the panel hip hop vs. america.

2. when Don Imus called the Rutgers basketball team nappy headed hos. (did he say anything? correct me if I’m wrong)

3. when hip-hop lyrics came under fire at the congressional hearings last September.

4. when the Rolling Stones Keith Richards said some dumb shit about hip hop.

5. when 60 minutes did their report on “Stop Snitching” and we were left with Cam’Ron as our voice

So…I’m asking…does it matter that he’s doing this a week after his album dropped? Do we care that he will go on the Colbert Report, an anti O’Reilly show, but will not go on Fox News (insiders at the network told me that he’s turned them down a few times) and represent hip-hop when it’s getting attacked. Or even go on a black show like Hip Hop Vs. America and put his 2 cents in. I’m just asking you all.