Hip-hop's Simmons wants to remove offensive words

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By Daniel Trotta

Prominent U.S. hip-hop executive Russell Simmons on Monday recommended eliminating the words

"b!tch," "ho" and "n!gger" 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 'b!tch' and 'ho' and the racially offensive word 'n!gger'," 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 ####### and commonly used in hip-hop music while n!gger, 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.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070423/music_...5opixLfjLKYExkF

Edited April 23, 2007 by Steven_and_Jinky

[Robor007 0]

Good luck. Might as well try to remove pr0n from the internet!

[Amby 490]

go for it russ

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Good luck. Might as well try to remove pr0n from the internet!

The big record labels (Sony for example) can impose a zero tolerance policy on their signed talent. It will come to dollars and cents if the ones producing the music take a stand...recording artists already compromise a lot just to eat.

Edited April 24, 2007 by Steven_and_Jinky

[Otto 83]

Good luck. Might as well try to remove pr0n from the internet!

The big record labels (Sony for example) can impose a zero tolerance policy on their signed talent. It will come to dollars and cents if the ones producing the music take a stand...recording artists already compromise a lot just to eat.

Don't most of these guys have their own record labels....?

[Fandango 1,440]

Funny how he waited til now

[Robor007 0]

Good luck. Might as well try to remove pr0n from the internet!

The big record labels (Sony for example) can impose a zero tolerance policy on their signed talent. It will come to dollars and cents if the ones producing the music take a stand...recording artists already compromise a lot just to eat.

Never going to happen. If one label bans 'bad' lyrics and drops an artist another label with less scruples will snatch up that artist in a second. The ONLY thing the music industry cares about is $$$.

Plus, if gangsta rap was banned what would the white kids in lowered civics with the seat way back and the hat on sideways play through their junk over-bassed stereos?

Funny how he waited til now

EXACTLY! Already rich!

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Someones gonna put a cap in his a$$.