Nas has chosen Hero as the lead single from his new album, Untitled. And for the ride, he’s bringing along Timbaland’s chum, Keri Hilson.

Initially hollering like Busta Rhymes with a sore throat, Nas immediately slips into a smooth but bland verse. Sounds a lot like old-fashioned homie posturing rather than any real conviction that he’s the ‘hero’ of the title.

Keri Hilson is criminally underused in this song. For a lady of her talents, both vocal and otherwise ;), to be reduced to backing vocals on the chorus is a bit of an insult really.

OK, so rappers aren’t known for their ability to avoid cliches, but Hero is so out of touch, it seems Nas needs a little reality check.

Onstage this week, the rapper Nas claimed that his next album will be called Nigga. From a marketing point of view, making such a controversial claim is bound to draw attention. Shame his record company didn’t agree, isn’t it?

Yeah, Def Jam Records have refuted that Nas even has an album scheduled for release, let alone one with such a controversial title.

Dear readers, was it Dumbledore or Gandalf who said “Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself”? Never underestimate the wisdom of the wizarding fraternity. I know to a lot of people, the word Nigga has racist overtones, but growing up listening to Ice-T, the word never meant slavery or racism to me. The vibe was more about gun-toting, drug-dealing, bitch-pimping dudes.

OK, so either way, the word doesn’t have much positive spin. One way, it’s a symbol of slavery, the other represents violent gang culture.

So, back to Nas. Was his stunt the other day more about self-publicity than trying to normalize a negative word? I think we know the answer to that one…