In an interview with Time magazine, Nas talked about the state of the U.S. as of today after the deaths of Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and others. Nas said the current climate of the country is like how it was during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. Also he said it is not okay for the country to look like “apartheid South Africa.” Nas added “We may have read about the Civil Rights [movement], but you didn’t live it, you may have read about lynchings in Mississippi and Alabama, but you didn’t live through it. It was before this generation’s time, before my time. Now you get to see it. Something that’s always been going on. Something that’s been going on entirely too long. It’s not cool to look like apartheid South Africa [in] 1988. How are we going to be the free world or the most powerful country when inside this country we’re fighting because of skin color? That’s just embarrassing. I’m one of the guys that’s out there saying, ‘Listen, it has to stop.’” Nas spoke a little more about the subject adding “It’s important that every time I see a black child I look him or her in the eyes and I say ‘This is your world. You’re a king or you’re a queen,’ everything else is telling them that they were slaves. It’s important that they know history for black children doesn’t start in this great country. It started in the world’s first civilization on that continent they call Africa. A lot of whites are very ignorant about American history. Lots of black people are upset with themselves because they have hatred towards themselves because they’re too dark or they’re this or they’re too that. And there’s a lot of healing that needs to come onto this country. America, we are really smart enough to figure it out, but I guess it’s safer to hang out and be ignorant, and be hateful, and think that one person is better than the other.”