That stuff in the new Nas song, is that all true?

Uh, shouldn't he sub Alexander the Great with Napoleon?

not if you're talking about cutting off the nose of the Sphinx. doesnt the age of the Sphinx go back a lot further than people think though? its probably in an episode of Stargate SG-1...

The myth is indeed that Napoleon shot off the Sphinx's nose, I think Nas got him mixed up with Alexander the Great (356-323 BC, hardly the time where they were able to shoot off huge blocks of stone, methinks). However, it says here:

One of the most recent examples of the persistence of this falsehood was Louis Farrakhan's "Million Man March" speech where he said: "White supremacy caused Napoleon to blow the nose off the Sphinx because it reminded you [sic] too much of the Black man's majesty." And the perpetuation of this myth in "Afrocentric" circles was even the subject of a segment of the U.S. television investigative journalism program "60 Minutes."

This error has persisted in spite of the fact that the truth can be readily found in such common reference sources as the Encyclopedia Americana (Danbury, CT: Grolier, 1995). vol.25, p.492-3 under "Sphinx", which states: "Over the centuries the Great Sphinx has suffered severely from weathering...Man has been responsible for additional mutilation. In 1380 A.D. the Sphinx fell victim to the iconoclastic ardor of a fanatical Muslim ruler, who caused deplorable injuries to the head. Then the figure was used as a target for the guns of the Mamluks."

Timbuktu was contemporary with early Middle Ages Europe, not with classical Europe. Europeans who tried to find it were generally trying to plunder it, because of rumours of its huge wealth. Greek attitudes to Egypt were generally somewhat fearful though it was more known as a centre of magic than of education in the classical period.

Alexander I don't think cut the nose off the Sphinx - he was trying to claim that he was the son of the Egyptian God Amon and would have been unlikely to attack a sacred monument in a country whose supply lines he was completely dependent on. Egypt was loosely in Persian hands when Alexander invaded, though it had been invaded before by Greeks (Athens at one point controlled it) and generally retained a nominal independence.

The classical world was xenophobic but modern conceptions of racism don't fit it exactly - certainly slavery upon racial rather than tribal lines is a Renaissance invention, not an ancient-world one.

The funny bit about the Kush stuff is that Nas has clearly been getting into Henry Louis Gates' whole discovering-Africa thing, either in print or in the documentaries. I really, really like the idea of Nas sitting at home watching Gates on PBS, poking around Mali in his Harvard sweatshirt and saying "Look at all the books!"

When classical Europeans had anything to do with Africa, incidentally, it was almost exclusively with North Africa. Their technology couldnt get them very far south by sea and they couldn't cope with the Sahara, so sub-Saharan Africa was a much more unknown quantity than India or even China.

History hip-hop always gives me a buzz though!

Grand Puba
Proper Education

Here comes the proper education

Rudebwoy!
Fiyah! Here comes the rudebwoy, ah ahh!

Proper education, education
Proper education
Proper education, education
Proper education

Now let me tell you folks just exactly what I mean
The way they try to lower, the black man's self esteem
Put us in their schools and I call em mental graves
When they teach us bout ourselves, all we learn that we were slaves
Then they say Jesus was white, understand
that means that Mystery God in the sky's a white man
These two things alone make us start to feel inferior
Then we grow up thinkin they are superior
Why does the black licorice taste the worst?
Why does the black jellybean taste the worst?
Why do the bad guys always wear black?
Why is bad luck when you see a black cat?
Cause they're workin subconciously, subconciously
Workin subconciously
Workin subconciously, subconciously
Workin subconciously
This is why we must teach our strong black nation
Proper education, education
Proper education
Proper education
Proper education
Proper education

Yes lord! Easy now star! Come again!

Now they gave restitution to the Japanese
You see they gave restitution to the Jews
Now over 400 years of slavery rape and murder
but I guess there's no restitution for the coons
They wanna use us a tool, and also as a slave
in the land of the free and the home of the brave
Musa came to the cave and taught them Ock
the tricknowledge that the Devil once forgot
Now the ten percent rules over the eighty-five
You see we have to do more than just keep hope alive
I don't hope and I don't do dope
but I still feel the pain from my ancestors swingin on a rope
Now pardon me as I distill on a Devil's grill
Now me trust a Devil, huh, I never will
I just catch my ?, grab my button, put it on my lapel
Grab my people and get out of hell
See this is why we must teach our young black nation
Proper education, education

Yes

Yes, we would like to say peace to all the Gods and the Earths
People of the universe
The original man
I would like to say peace to my brother Tony X
Yes

Wanna say
to my physicals, free the land

A-B-C

(this is actually a great and kinda heavy song, but that bit about badtasting black licorice as evidence of racial domination always cracks me up)

B-b-but the black jellybean tastes the best!

Well the black fruit pastille does anyway.

(Also it is not like there is some magical white licorice that is nice.)

(oh Fritz got there first)

The problem with the "black-bad / white-good" thing as racial is that I'm sure humans were afraid of the dark well before they found people who were different colors than they were.

He forgot to mention the binbags

'black cat is bad luck
bad guys wear black
musta been a white guy who started all that'

(I was at Rapmania at the Apollo in 1989 when Third Bass busted that up and got an ovation for it. Yeah boyee fight the power.)

Serch shoulda done a cameo on the Nas track, droppin' much science like a clumsy scholar

no, it's all lies...you can't be what you want to be, even if you work hard at it.

Also check out 'The Nature of the Threat' by Ras Kass for this here topic

black cat can mean good luck too

being 'in the black' is considered a good thing

black never goes out of style - also a good thing

black Fruit Pastilles ARE the worst tasting tho, dam those evil racist Rowntrees scum