Untitled Nas album

The untitled ninth studio album by American rapper Nas was released by Def Jam Recordings and Columbia Records on July 15, 2008 in the United States, with earlier dates in some other countries. Its original title—Nigger—was changed due to controversy surrounding the racial epithet. The album is distinguished for its political content, diverse sources of production and provocative subject matter.

The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, Nas' fifth to do so. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for shipments of 500,000 copies in the United States. Upon its release, the album received generally positive reviews from music critics; it holds an aggregate score of 71/100 from Metacritic.

Background

Title controversy

The original title of the album—Nigger—was mentioned by Nas several times, as well as on an October 12, 2007, performance at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City where he announced the title and release date.Def Jam made no comment on the title. This was similar to attempts to name his 2006 album—eventually titled Hip Hop Is Dead—both Nigga and Hip Hop Is Dead... The N. On May 19, 2008, it was confirmed that Nas changed the name of the album to an untitled one (although on iTunes, the album is self-titled), stating that "the people will always know what the real title of this album is and what to call it." The cover of the album shows the back of a shirtless Nas with flagellation scars forming the shape of the letter N, a reference to the racial slur and how slaves were tortured. Fort Greene, Brooklyn assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries requested New York's Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to withdraw $84 million from the state pension fund that has been invested into Universal and its parent company, Vivendi, if the album's title was not changed.

Kartel (electoral alliance)

A kartel is the Dutch term for an electoral alliance between two or more parties in Belgium.

In a system of proportional representation in which the country is divided in multiple electoral districts, such as Belgium the threshold to obtain one seat can be very high (5% of votes since 2003), which also favours larger parties. Therefore some parties pool their voters in order to gain more (or any) seats.

The SP.A-Spirit cartel between the Socialist Party - Different (SP.A) and the left-liberal Spirit (later FlemishProgressives, then Social-Liberal Party) is an example of such a cartel.

Vlaams Kartels in Brussels

On several occasions some or all Flemish parties bundled forces on 'Vlaams Kartel' lists for municipal elections in Brussels (in Dutch Vlaams Kartel), sometimes getting together one or two seats in the municipal council, sometimes getting none. As these parties are minority parties in every Brussels municipality, i.e., the parties of an ethnic or linguistic minority (on the average 10-15% of the population), this is a case of an electoral coalition of ethnic parties.

Yeah (Park Jung-ah album)

Yeah is Park Jung-ah's 1st studio album. It was released on August 25, 2006.

Track listing

Yeah! (Usher song)

"Yeah!" is a song by American recording artist Usher. It was written by Usher, Lil Jon, Sean Garrett, Patrick J. Que Smith, Ludacris, Robert McDowell and LRoc, and features guest vocals from Lil Jon and Ludacris. It was also produced by Lil Jon, who incorporated crunk and R&B—which he coined as crunk&B—in the song's production. The song was released as the lead single from Usher's fourth studio album Confessions (2004) on January 27, 2004, after Usher was told by Arista Records, his label at the time, to record more tracks for the album.

"Yeah!" topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for twelve consecutive weeks, before being replaced by its follow-up single "Burn". "Yeah!" was the longest-running number one single in 2004, subsequently topping the year-end chart on the Hot 100. It was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The song received a similar response in other countries, topping fourteen charts worldwide. It was certified platinum in several countries, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany and Norway, and received a two times platinum certification in New Zealand. The song peaked in the top-ten in several Year-end charts.

Strictly Turntablized

Strictly Turntablized is the second solo album from Japanese underground hip hop producer DJ Krush. It was released in 1994.

Track listing

References

External links