The N-word debate and the Don Imus controversy

So, what else happened in the world of major music companies? Well, aside from all the attempts at new business models, and all the mergers and acquisitions, and the continued decline in CD sales and resulting job cuts (especially in the latter part of the year) the chiefs of the big music firms in the US suddenly found themselves accused by black community rights groups of profiting from racism and sexism. That happened because an old debate became news again - the inclusion of racist and sexist language in hip hop. Ironically, that happened because of the decidedly un-hip hop American radio DJ Don Imus, who caused outrage by referring to a mainly black female basketball team as "nappy headed hos". While CBS cancelled Imus' radio show, some in the US media pointed out that artists in the black community regularly use words like 'nigga' and 'ho', causing black community groups who had hit out at Imus to put new pressure on the hip hop community to clean up its act. Keen not to be seen to censoring popular rap stars directly, much of the pressure was put on those people who ran major music firms who released the rappers' work, with some calling on shareholders in those firms to put similar pressure on CEOs and VPs at the majors. Some within the hip hop community threw their weight behind a campaign to remove the 'n' and 'h' word from the genre, then those CEOs and VPs all attended a few meetings with the concerned groups in a bid to find a way to not be portrayed as racists or sexists, but without being seen to censor rap stars signed to their label. In the end, despite a very high profile campaign, not much really changed - and while some rappers did pledge to not use offending words in the future, Nas announced his next album would be called 'Nigger' and talked at length as to why the black community should celebrate and not oppose his decision to do so. Meaning, despite a lot of noise, little was really achieved in addressing this tricky issue.