Hip Hop Retreat
It looks like at least one leader in the hip hop community has decided to step up to the call to restrict language in the songs.
Prominent U.S. hip-hop executive Russell Simmons Monday recommended eliminating the words “bitch,” “ho” and “nigger” from the recording industry, considering them “extreme curse words.”
The call comes less than two weeks after radio personality Don Imus’ nationally syndicated and televised radio show was canceled amid public outcry over Imus calling a women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos.”
Simmons, co-founder of the Def Jam label and a driving force behind hip-hop’s huge commercial success, called for voluntary restrictions on the words and setting up an industry watchdog to recommend guidelines for lyrical and visual standards.
“We recommend that the recording and broadcast industries voluntarily remove/bleep/delete the misogynistic words ‘bitch’ and ‘ho’ and the racially offensive word ‘nigger,’ “ Simmons and Benjamin Chavis, co-chairmen of the advocacy group Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, said in a statement.
“These three words should be considered with the same objections to obscenity as ‘extreme curse words,’ “ it said
Personally, I am not against banning any language. Self censorship is the only acceptable form of censorship. But that whole gangster rap thing is played out and it looks like the tide of public opinion may be turning against it. Let’s hope it’ll fade away like other lame trends of the past.
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