Story by Andrew Barker

With racial sensitivities at a high thanks to l’affaire Imus, Jena 6 and the candidacy of Barack Obama, this summer would seem a particularly inhospitable climate to release an album titled "Nigger."

That’s what veteran rapper Nas discovered when he announced the incendiary title for his upcoming LP (slated for July 15), prompting censorship concerns and fierce criticism from Jesse Jackson and the NAACP. Ceding to pressure earlier this month, Nas agreed to release the record untitled.

I spoke to Nas on Sunday at the BMI & BET Black Music Month Brunch, and he expressed hope that the old title will be conspicuous in its absence.

"People know what the album is supposed to be called," he says. "And I feel like I call more attention to the word by leaving it out."

Even without the highly-charged slur, the album’s cover should still give record-buyers pause, boasting the image of Nas’ bare back, branded with the letter "N" by whip welts.

While he admits that controversy has increased the album’s visibility ("it’s better than any endorsement"), he stresses that the title was not a mere grab for attention. In conversation, Nas uses such terms as "universal apartheid" to describe race relations in the country, and says he intends the album to be a coherent statement.

Judging from tracks that have surfaced via leaks and mixtapes, the new material certainly doesn’t lack for provocation. The chorus of single "Be a Nigger Too" nods to Lenny Bruce, compiling a litany of racial slurs and diminishing them by repetition, while "Black President" is a somewhat cynical celebration of Obama’s candidacy.

The album will be Nas’ ninth overall and second for label Def Jam, following 2006 conversation-starter "Hip Hop Is Dead." With seven platinum records already under his belt, the rapper seems to be increasingly veering from the radio-ready route in favor of a more explicitly political track.

"It can’t be only about calling up Timbaland for a beat," Nas says, speaking to the difficulty of addressing substantive issues in a hit-single-minded genre. "I want to stay provocative. I want to keep doing this until I’m dead."