Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons yesterday recommended eliminating the words “bitch,” “ho,” and “nigga” from the recording industry, calling them “extreme curse words.”
The call comes less than two weeks after radio personality Don Imus was fired amid public outcry over his on-air remarks, in which he referred to a women’s college basketball team as “nappy-headed hoes.”
Simmons, co-chairman of the Hip-Hop Action Summit Network, called for voluntary restrictions on the words, as well as an industry watchdog to set up guidelines for hip-hop lyrics and videos.
“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 said in a statement.
“These three words should be considered with the same objections to obscenity as ‘extreme curse words.’”
The HSAN recommended the formation of a Coalition on Broadcast Standards that would consist of leading industry insiders from music, radio and television, although no artists or execs were specifically named.
“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.”
Woe is the day that a prominent leader in this culture is attempting to sensor one of the last true forms of expression. I understand that these words are typically devoid of artistry, but lest he forget that hip-hop is rooted in the fight against suppression and censorship. Shame on him.
^^^Wel said my man
We all have the freedom of speech but at the same time we should not neglect the fact that we have to be socially responsible. That is what the essence of hip hop is. Social responsibility, back in the day ‘old skool’ hip hop was a way to tell the story of the hood and the hood had bitches in it, so hip hop used bitches, the hood had ho’s in it, so hip hop used ho’s, and nigga as compared to nigger was a term of empowerment, an identification that the black people no longer belonged to the white man, that they no longer were slaves. Like Pac said, “niggers is the ones chained from their hands and feet, slaves, and niggaz are the ones in the club with tha gold chains”. We can argue both sides, that these words should be banned and at the same time, these words are neccessary. I belive it depends on the context of the text, if the words are used in a negitive manner or by fucked up rappers or sum gay r n b shit, then they should be limited, but if used truly by a true artist then the words should not be restricted.
yo L .. hit me up if u need a writer
Same on ho and bitches : also like pac said ” you got ho’s and you got ladies, you got male ho’s too.”
If a ho is a ho , why cant we call her a ho ?
Delores Tucker youz a mothafucka , insteada tryina help a nigga you destroy a brother