More on the growing backlash against sexism and the likes in the good old world of hip hop. You'll remember that ever since American shock jock Don Imus got fired for calling members of the mainly black Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos", media attention has been focusing on the misogynistic and racist lyrics of key US rappers, mainly because Imus' supporters hit back at those in the black community who accused the DJ of being racist and sexist by pointing out that his comments were mild compared to the content of tracks by many of the hip hop artists most admired within the black community.
Having brought together the top execs from all the key hip hop labels to discuss the matter last week, Def Jam founder and Hip Hop Summit Action Network man Russell Simmons yesterday issued a statement calling on the hip hop community to stop using words like 'bitch', 'ho' and 'nigger', which he said should be considered on par with the "extreme curse words", by which I assume he means 'fuck' and 'cunt', though one might argue words used in a sexist or racist way are more offensive than the good old fashioned Anglo Saxon swear words. Though whether that's necessarily a reason to censor them, I don't know, but Simmons - who's always been rather anti-censorship previously - now seems to think perhaps we should. Though he says he's advocating "social responsibility" rather than "censorship".
Here are the words he and HSAN co-chair Benjamin Chavis used: "HSAN is concerned about the growing public outrage concerning the use of the words 'bitch', 'ho' and 'nigger'. We recommend that the recording and broadcast industries voluntarily remove/bleep/delete the misogynistic words 'bitch' and 'ho' and the racially offensive word 'nigger'. Going forward, these three words should be considered with the same objections to obscenity as 'extreme curse words'. The words 'bitch' and 'ho' are utterly derogatory and disrespectful of the painful, hurtful, misogyny that, in particular, African American women have experienced in the United States as part of the history of oppression, inequality, and suffering of women. The word 'nigger' is a racially derogatory term that disrespects the pain, suffering, history of racial oppression, and multiple forms of racism against African Americans and other people of color".
On the censorship point, they add: "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".
And finally, returning to the Don Imus affair, and its role in kick starting the latest soul searching within the upper echelons of hip hop, they said: "Hip hop is a worldwide cultural phenomenon that transcends race and doesn't engage in racial slurs. Don Imus' racially-motivated diatribe toward the Rutger's women's basketball team was in no way connected to hip hop culture. As Chairman and President of the Hip Hop Summit Action Network, respectively, we are concerned by the false comparisons some in the media are making between Don Imus and hip hop. We want to clarify what we feel very strongly is an obvious difference between the two".
So that's all sorted then. We put in a call to some bitches, hos and niggers for their take on all this, but they all declined to comment. Fucking cunts.
In related news, civil rights campaigner Al Sharpton, who has also been leading the campaign against both Imus, and sexism and racism within hip hop, and who is calling on the major record companies who profit from the genre to take a more proactive role in all this, is reportedly planning on buying stock in both Warner Music and the Universal Music Group via his National Action Network so that he can attend shareholder meetings and bug other shareholders and the suits at the top of these corporations to take a stand against sexist and racist language in the music they release. Which should be interesting. The New York Post quote Sharpton thus: "Some of these stockholders have no idea that they own stock in a parent company that owns companies calling them bitches and hos". Sharpton is also planning a 'decency march' that will target Warner, Universal and SonyBMG. For reasons I'm not sure of, EMI seem to be off the hook.
(Actually, several of the reports on Sharpton's stock buying plans say he intends to buy shares in Time Warner, which is a bit confusing assuming it's the record companies he's targeting - he does know Time Warner haven't owned Warner Music since 2004, doesn't he?)