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Nas and Nick Cannon Do PSA on the State of Hip-Hop (Video)

12:25 p.m. · August 6, 2009 · by Andrew Winistorfer

Nas has made no secret of his distaste for the current state of hip-hop, and to continue his ranting, he has helped Nick Cannon make a PSA about how hip-hop is turning into a minstrel show thanks to labels and rappers playing up stereotypes. The video finds Cannon and one of his Wild N Out friends as Shuck and Jive, rappers who rap only about watermelon.

Considering that Nas has only recently gotten back doing songs not about how loaded he is, and that he has been on a major label his entire career, and that Nick Cannon was in Drumline (a movie that furthers the stereotype that only black people have rhythm) and worked for MTV, which airs all the rap this PSA rails against, I'm not sure how seriously to take this. I suppose anything that gets people talking about it is noble, at least. But it's not like this is as cutting Chapelle's Show. It's more like Mind of Mencia. [Daily Swarm]