By Dante Maddox

Hip Hop legend Nas (Nasir Jones) is finally ready to drop the follow-up to 2006’s Hip Hop is Dead.

Nas has been at the forefront of conscious hip-hop for just about his whole career. When he speaks, people listen, and often times get a little angry. Numerous MC’s have responded to his call that hip-hop is dead, affirming Nas’ ability to light a fire under the collectives asses of an entire generation of MC’s. Nas is set to put the industry on notice a second time with his ninth studio release, his second on the Def Jam label.

After a last minute name change for the album, Nas is set to top his last albums sales of 350,000 copies in the first week. "It's important to me that this album gets to the fans," Nas said of his newest project. "It's been a long time coming. I want my fans to know that creatively and lyrically, they can expect the same content and the same messages. It's that important. The streets have been waiting for this for a long time. The people will always know what the real title of this album is and what to call it."

In case you didn’t know Nas planned on calling the album the ‘n’ word, but when faced with the idea that large retailers like Walmart might feel inclined to not sell his album it seems like the MC thought better of it. Or maybe Def Jam got gun shy. The world may never know.

We do know that the word has made it into the album in the form of a song entitled "N.I.G.G.E.R. (Slave and Master)" which was produced by DJ Toomp, the track has the kind of lyrics you would expect from an MC like Nas: They say we N-I-double-G-E-R/ We are, much more/ But still we choose to ignore the obvious/ Man, this history don't acknowledge us/ We were scholars way before colleges...

Another track that looks promising is called" Fried Chicken" and it features fellow east coast star Busta Rhymes, and is produced by Mark Ronson. Ronson recently won a Grammy for Producer of the year. He had this to say about working with Nas, “'One day, I'll get to do a track for...,'" says Ronson. "We finally met Grammy night in LA, and he said he wanted some stuff from me for the album. I started thinking to myself, as a Nas fan, 'What kind of beats would I love to hear him over?' That's how the Dapkings and I came up with the track for 'Fried Chicken', and I reckon it sounds like a stone cold classic."

Look for the album to hit stores July 15th.