Several families of the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting have expressed concern over Nas’ scheduled appearance at an upcoming memorial concert set to take place at the campus.

According to The Washington Post,
the free concert was organized to lift spirits of the shaken Virginia
Tech community. The afomentioned families feel Nas’ inclusion to the
event is disrespectful for the people killed because of the rapper’s
violent lyrics.

Vincent J. Bove, a spokesman
for the victims families, made his case by highlighting Nas’ lyrics
from his song “Shoot ‘Em Up” in which the New York bred emcee raps:
“Shoot ’em up, just shoot ’em up, what?”  followed by whispers of
“Kill, kill, kill, murder, murder, murder.”

“The lyrics are
indicative of the moral decay in our society that contributes to acts
of violence, ” Bove said. “For a university official to condone it or
to be clueless of what this person’s track record is, it’s
unconscionable beyond belief.”

Earlier this year, Seung Hui-Cho,
a Virginia Tech student, opened fire on several students and staff
members of campus killing 32 people and then committing suicide.

Despite
the outrage expressed by Bove and the families, officials of the
university revealed that the overall response for the concert has been
positive and they have no plans of making any changes.

“Literally within minutes of the concert’s announcement, we received a tremendous positive response,” explained Chris Clough,
a spokesman for the university. “Among those who have responded have
been families who thought it was a tremendously positive note to start
the academic year.”

The free concert, which will also feature performances from The Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer and Phil Vassar, will take place on September 6.