West Coast Connection Forum
DUBCC - Tha Connection => West Coast Classics => Topic started by: Darksider on April 23, 2007, 07:50:18 PM
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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
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will never happen
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that is hilarious
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i am down with that!!!
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will never happen
i agree
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Uhhhhh........
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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.
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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
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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. 8) 8)
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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.
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....in other words the big task for the next 10 years, good luck simmons.
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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,
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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!
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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
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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.
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ive always hated russell simmons and he constantly proves me right to hate him.
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I love Russel Simmons. He is a hip-hop pioneer and he respects the culture as much as any of the execs.
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no street nigga will ever sign wit def jam if he bans his artists from using them words.
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Fuck him, he may as well change his name to Hillary Clinton or Tipor Gore ::)
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50 commented on this when asked on westwood's show. i remember his response being something along the lines of what doesn't matter is the word but the context its being used in. as if nobody realised that already, real profound 50! westwood was feeling it though 'thats CRAZY man' or something ;p
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i thought russell simmons sold def jam. he never wouldve institued this kind of ban while he was making his fortune from artists who used offensive words.
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'Thats why we say nigga,nigga,nigga and bitch, bitch, bitch and fuck you if you dont like it' NWA
fuck Russel simmons too, ban swearing shut the fuck up.
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I like TIs quote I saw last night on the news about this bullshit.
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"We recommend that the recording and broadcast industries voluntarily remove/bleep/delete the misogynistic words--"
What a humble wish. Have Russell been living under a rock past these years? The most of radio stations have already banned all the curse words, including "bitch" and "nigger". MTV have already banned the bad words too but I can't tell about BET because I'm not able to view it but I believe that they have done the same.
Russell have probably caught Alzheimer's because he can't remember co-owning the Def Jam Recordings. I did study Def Jam's roster and I found many artist who have used the words "nigga" and "bitch". Jay-Z, Juelz, Young Jeezy, Method Man and many other would have to go if Russell is the first to throw the rock against bitches and niggaz. Lets see if Russell is a man of his word.
Not only banning of these words would be against the freedome of speech but also they would be against recording companies' wallets. Hip-Hop isn't a one dollar game no more, it hasn't been in years.
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One, it's not just the curse words themselves. All these songs comin' out these days are TOTALLY based around degrading women, drug use, etc. etc. It's the WHOLE track, not just certain words. Fuck taking out the swears becuz it's just lil kids runnin' the industry who don't give a shit about conscienceness. All they want is sex, money and clothes. Played out too!
And fuck Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson becuz them ass holes do NOT do for their community. They just want they face everywhere! They needa stop actin', shit is played out now. Somebody BLACK better let them know that!
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censorship! this dude needs to move the fuck out of America if he's got a problem with certain "words"
ridiculous shit, guy should be ashamed of himself for such an absurd thought
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Ehh.. apparently he was misquoted.. he just wanted the clean versions of the albums to be "more clean" and not include offensive words
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Lol, i remember when i bought Streetz Iz A Mutha, it was a clean version but it didn't say anything about that on the cd or in the booklet or whatever. I went back to the store with the CD but they didn't wanna give me my money back. :-\
Fuck clean versions, just take the music how it is.
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I like TIs quote I saw last night on the news about this bullshit.
what quote?
-T
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Man even if you do ban the words, people don't think rappers can come up with more creative phrases and words to replace those. That is like censoring E-40 from say scrilla. Ok so in 5 minutes he comes up with another word or phrase that means the same thing. Maybe for some of these fly by night rappers it would kill they verses, but a real mc is too clever. THAT IS ALL THEY DO IS RAP. This shit is comical.
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Man even if you do ban the words, people don't think rappers can come up with more creative phrases and words to replace those. That is like censoring E-40 from say scrilla. Ok so in 5 minutes he comes up with another word or phrase that means the same thing. Maybe for some of these fly by night rappers it would kill they verses, but a real mc is too clever. THAT IS ALL THEY DO IS RAP. This shit is comical.
LMAO true
just like what Chappelle was saying about when white people found out what 'skeet' means
-T
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Man even if you do ban the words, people don't think rappers can come up with more creative phrases and words to replace those. That is like censoring E-40 from say scrilla. Ok so in 5 minutes he comes up with another word or phrase that means the same thing. Maybe for some of these fly by night rappers it would kill they verses, but a real mc is too clever. THAT IS ALL THEY DO IS RAP. This shit is comical.
LMAO true
just like what Chappelle was saying about when white people found out what 'skeet' means
-T
Exactly. LOL! Corporate America act like they got a 1 up on hip hop but real mcs would adapt to that if they had to. Alot of people just want hip hop gone period. They can point out every gangsta or pimp song but no positive points because that does not make money for them at the end of the day. Shit I say have fun with it.
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that is hilarious
Yes ::)