Various Artists News

Nas won't just be dropping a new album on Dec. 11, he'll also be dropping an N-bomb.

After Def Jam denied reports that the rapper was planning to name his next album Nigga, Nas has ratcheted up the controversy by saying that he would instead use the epithet's correct spelling for the title of the disc, which he confirmed will be released on Dec. 11.

"[People] shouldn't trip off the title. The songs are crazier than the title," he told MTV News.

But trip off is exactly what several key civil rights players did.

"The title using the N-word is morally offensive and socially distasteful. Nas has the right to degrade and denigrate in the name of free speech, but there is no honor in it," said the Reverend Jesse Jackson in a statement.

"Radio and television stations have no obligation to play it, and self-respecting people have no obligation to buy it. I wish he would use his talents to lift up and inspire, not degrade."

Earlier this week, Fox News' Website published a story quoting an insider for Nas' label, Def Jam, dismissing remarks Nas made during a recent concert. The hip-hop star told the crowd at New York City's Roseland Ballroom of his plans to use Nigga as the title.

"There is no album release by Nas on the release schedule at this point," the label source told Fox News. "And they would be unlikely to release an album with that title. How would that look at Wal-Mart?"

The big-box chain notoriously refuses to stock albums featuring any kind of profanity.

However, the "Hate Me Now" purveyor told MTV News that he didn't "know where that [Fox News report] came from and neither does Def Jam."

The label did not return calls Friday. 

Holed up in a Manhattan studio where's he's about two weeks from completing the album, Nas also blasted his critics, claiming the title is intended to deprive the epithet of its awful connotations.

"I wanna make the word easy on muthaf---as' ears," he told MTV News. "You see how white boys ain't mad at 'cracker' 'cause it don't have the same [sting] as 'n---er'? I want 'n---er' to have less meaning [than] 'cracker.' With all the bulls--t that's going on in the world, racism is at its peak. I wanna do the s--t that's not being done. I wanna be the artist who ain't out. I wanna make the music I wanna hear."

In July, the NAACP held a mock funeral to bury the N-word from public discourse. The organization's brain trust feels that casual uses of the derogatory nickname can have the adverse effect of popularizing its use.

Not so, says Nas.

"Whether you in the NAACP or you Jesse Jackson, I respect all of them," he continued. "Right now, we're on a whole new movement. We're taking power from that word."

A representative for the NAACP was unavailable for comment.

Nas says he will unleash the first single from the new recording after the release of a Greatest Hits album, hitting stores on Nov. 6.