Russell Simmons wants to remove offensive words from hiphop

[Darksider]

Hip-hop's Simmons wants to remove offensive words By Daniel Trotta
Mon Apr 23, 2:27 PM ET



NEW YORK (Reuters) - Prominent U.S. hip-hop executive Russell Simmons on Monday recommended eliminating the words "*****," "ho" and "******" 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 '*****' and 'ho' and the racially offensive word '******'," 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.

Ho is slang for whore and commonly used in hip-hop music while ******, a derogatory term for blacks, is among the most highly charged insults in American culture. The slur "nappy," used by Imus, describes the tightly curled hair of many African Americans.

CHANGING STANCE

Monday's statement changed course from another one by Simmons and Chavis dated April 13, a day after Imus' show was canceled, in which they said offensive references in hip-hop "may be uncomfortable for some to hear, but our job is not to silence or censor that expression."

The Imus controversy stoked a debate in the United States about how to deal with inflammatory words that are widely considered highly offensive but at the same time commonly and casually used in youth culture.

U.S. black leaders such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have led the charge to suppress offensive words while many artists have argued for freedom of expression. New York City declared a symbolic moratorium on the so-called N-word in February.

"Our internal discussions with industry leaders are not about censorship. Our discussions are about the corporate social responsibility of the industry to voluntarily show respect to African Americans and other people of color, African American women and to all women in lyrics and images," the statement from Simmons and Chavis said on Monday.

The network recommended the formation of a Coalition on Broadcast Standards that would consist of leading executives from music, radio and television.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070423/music_nm/usa_hiphop_dc

[Lunatic]

will never happen

[Samoan Enforcer]

that is hilarious

[.:Hercy Buggz:.]

i am down with that!!!

[The_Urban_Legend]

will never happen

i agree

[thisoneguy360]

Uhhhhh........

[jeromechickenbone]

Did he mention about how everybody used to call him "Russell Rush" back in the 80's cuz he was known to do endless amounts of cocaine?  I really like Russell Simmons actually, but getting everybody to agree to not use words like "ho" and "nigga" isn't the answer.  All that needs to happen is to have a counterbalance of artists that aren't about that shit.

Promote more conscious acts and give them some shine.  Give people a choice.  That's what's wrong with mainstream rap, 90% of the time it's only one perspective and thats why it fucking sucks. 

[Tanjential]

Jrome speaks truth. don't change the current artists, bring in artists that don't do that shit in the first place.

Save us Lupe and Murs!

-T

[XaNdEr]

Jrome speaks truth. don't change the current artists, bring in artists that don't do that shit in the first place.

Save us Lupe and Murs!

-T

Lupe Fiasco is tight, Food & Liquor = Best Album of 2006 imo. 

[gchild]

I think some of the points made by Russel Simmons can come into force.  I know you can't censor an artist, but the point that he was also highlighting was the responsibility of broadcasters such as MTV, BET, Hot 97 etc... to place words like "B*tch", "ho" e.t.c.. in the same category as F*ck, sh*t......  meaning that those words will be deleted/beeped during their music videos/songs on TV/radio if they are currently not being done so?  It also depends on the country as well, some countries have stricter guidelines than others.

[Fonky Fresh]

....in other words the big task for the next 10 years, good luck simmons.

[papa-smurf]

Fuck that,rap should be a freedom of speach,people should say and rap about what they wonna say and rap about,Its a diffrence between a bitch,a hoe and a women,it just so happen that it is bitchies and hos in this world,its more bitchies and hos then it is women,They could remove nigga,But not bicthies and hos,But if he saying they should just bleep  it dureing videos and radios then ok,they already do that,i dont know what videos or radio station he hearing when they or saying bicthies and hos,but i guess,its whatever,But if he thinking about deleteing the words out the rap game period then thats out of the question,

[TraceOneInfinite]

As long as "hoe's" and "bitches" exist, rappers are gonna talk about them.  Simple as that.  You can live in a fantasy world and imagine that all women are queens and rap like Common all day or something... but that isn't everyone's reality.  A lot of rappers have seen a lot of women in their lives that fit the category of hoes. 

Why doesn't Oprah and all them complain about all these R&B hoes, like Beyonce, etc.  A hoe sells sex for money.. Beyonce is definitely selling sex in almost all her video's.  They applaud them for their soft porn, but then they want to complain about these rappers.  That's straight up bullshit, fuck them hoes!

[The_Offence]

they should remove the N word anything else  can stay cuz everybody say bitch, hoe, fuck but the n word in hip hop has to go because everybody think they can say it now

[T-Dogg]

A) They already make cencored versions of explicit albums.
B) Radio/TV already cencors songs and videos

Banning words isn't the answer. That shit just isn't the right way. That's straight up fucking with freedom of speech. (The only word I think could/should be banned is the N-bomb.)

What artists need to do is elevate their wordplay, their subjects, their lexicon. When you dumb-down your shit that's when you get those "suck a dick bitch" -type of raps.