Ring the bell, because the next great heavyweight battle in hip-hop is about to begin. Nasir Jones, or Nas, is certainly one of the most controversial rappers in the history of the genre, and he has struck again.

On December 19, Nas released an album titled Hip Hop is Dead and it has become a focal point of both adulation and resentment from hip hop fans and artists since. The LP, which was the top-selling album in the United States its debut week, has challenged all observers and participants of rap culture to examine the state of its music.

In an interview conducted by RWD Magazine, a British music publication, Nas claimed, “There is no political voice [anymore in hip-hop]. Music is dead. Our way of thinking is dead, our commerce is dead. Everything in this society has been done. That’s where we are.”

To no surprise, Nas’s comments have been received in many different ways. Many hip-hop traditionalists, whom tend to often be fans of “old-school” rap, argue Nas makes a necessary observation on the current state of affairs. Conversely, many others, especially fans of the newer, “crunk”-style, Southern-based rap, argue hip-hop is not dead at all – in fact, it’s more alive than ever.

Nas himself developed from a brash, relatively underground rapper into an elder statesman of hip-hop, whose longevity and widely-acknowledged talent gives him a bully pulpit from which he has never been afraid to say exactly what is on his mind.

Nas’s first album, Illmatic, has been called one of the greatest rap albums of all time, and ever since he’s taken the persona of an aloof participant in the hip-hop culture, with an abrasive tongue that got him involved in the biggest hip-hop feud since the death of The Notorious B.I.G. in 1997.

Nas and Jay-Z, another rap superstar, had a highly publicized feud lasting until earlier this year. Originally, the rappers clashed over who was the best artist in New York after the death of Notorious B.I.G. Bad blood and their proximity to each other in the Big Apple brought about a long-lasting and highly publicized series of recorded ructions. Nas’s song “Ether” off his 2001 album Stillmatic is arguably the best “diss track” in the history of rap.

The rappers have since reconciled, and Jay-Z actually appears on Hip Hop is Dead, exchanging rhymes with Nas on the track “Black Republican.”

The title track, and perhaps the most controversial on the album, features will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas fame, and has a beat sampling Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.” Nas uses a relatively simple beat and bassline in order to draw attention to his lyrics, and begins by claiming hip-hop is his “First wifey” and, “If hip hop should die we die together.” Nas says in the beginning of the third verse, “Everybody sound[s] the same, commercialize the game/Reminiscin’ when it wasn’t all business.”

He also makes references to other popular rap songs which are generally more rhythm-based than lyric-based. These attacks have been taken personally by Southern rappers.

Chris Bridges, known as rapper Ludacris, wore a t-shirt with the words, “Hip Hop Ain’t Dead” at a concert. Later, in an interview with MTV in London, Ludacris said, “I feel like the South is keeping it alive. What we do is hip-hop. Some people may not feel that way. You gotta respect some people’s opinion, but hey.” He then said that Nas’s argument is basically, “dissin’ the South.”

Another Southern rapper, Young Jeezy, took a more violent stance in regards to Nas’s album on a radio interview on Philadelphia’s WPHI 100.3 FM, going as far as questioning Nas’s street credibility. He then challenged Nas directly, saying on air, “If Nas say[s] hip hop is dead… I say hip hop is alive. Tell him to holler at me!”

Other prominent southern rappers, including rap icons OutKast, have taken offense to Nas’s comments, but Nas defends his lyrics.

He told MTV, “It ain’t got nothing to do with old school, new school, Dirty South, West Coast, East Coast – it’s about us. I say what I say and I mean it. Y’all take it how you wanna take it. If you asking why hip-hop dead, it’s a pretty good chance your lame ass, corny ass is the reason it died.”

The rest of the tracks on the album are often scathing critiques of hip-hop, and many are vintage Nas – clever, cutting lyrics, with beats paying homage to older songs in rap, ignoring the flashy, relatively generic trends of hip-hop prevalent presently.

“Black Republican,” the track featuring Jay-Z, is named such because the rappers feel guilty for making so much money but trying to remain true to their inner-city, hard-knock roots. The last part of the song contains Nas’s words, “Could it be the forces of darkness, against hood angels of good/That forms street politics, makes a sweet honest kid/Turn illegal for commerce to get his feet out of them Converses.” He examines a very disturbing element of hip-hop, the fact it has come to overemphasize the necessity of having exuberant amounts of money.

This, he argues, morphed hip-hop into a shameless business, which took the creative power away from the artist who is now a slave to the masses, whose current demand is for tracks with shallow lyrics and dynamic beats best suited for clubs.

Nas argues this trend transformed hip-hop into a regrettable microcosm of what it could be, which currently emphasizes a flashy, violent and material business which would make the forefathers of hip-hop shake their heads.

In 2007, we may see what could be the biggest change in hip-hop since rap shifted from a strictly East and West rivalry to the fully national genre it is today. Once again, Nas, the poignant poet of the streets, has brought hip-hop’s followers’ attention to the change in hip-hop which is, for better or worse, inevitably taking place.

In “One Mic,” a song off of his album Stillmatic, Nas claims, “All I need is one mic to spread my voice to the whole world.” At least in the hip-hop world, Nas has reestablished himself as a preeminent historian and leader in the rap game, with a powerful and perhaps threatening album that has rappers and fans from Houston to Los Angeles back to his native New York thinking about the future of hip-hop.