It’s just words

At LFV, Chris Bennett discusses Russell Simmons’s earlier comments on rap music and bad language.

I’m a huge fan of hip-hop which is different than this crap, I mean rap, that’s out now. I owned a copy of “Straight Outta Compton” by NWA, and “Nasty As They Wanna Be” by the Two Live Crew, which probably are the two most controversial rap albums before Eminem stepped into the rap world. In fact, Two Live Crew was the first rap group to voluntarily put out TWO versions of their albums. Russell Simmons, brother of Reverend RUN from RUN DMC and hip hop executive, “recommended eliminating the words “bitch,” “ho” and “nigger” from the recording industry, considering them “extreme curse words.”

One commenter (and contributor) at LFV said she banned rap music from her house, and then another picked on her for being a libertarian who wanted to ban any expression at all.

ElfninosMom Says:

April 24th, 2007 at 4:05 pm e

I abhor rap music, to the point that it has long been banned in my home.

When younger, my son didn’t understand why I felt so strongly about it, and we went more than a few rounds about the subject. Now that he’s an adult, though, he understands my stance, and agrees I did the right thing.

For example, some of his friends sometimes refer to females, regardless of race, as “hos” and “bitches”, and their friends as “niggas”. I frankly find it very hard to believe that these upper-middle class privileged white boys came up with those specific terms anywhere but from having heard it in rap music.

unrepentant_archcapitalist Says:

April 27th, 2007 at 10:45 am e

A “libertarian” mom bans an entire genre of music within her house?

Way to teach your child to think for himself.

I think ENM is the first ever female member of the “angry white male” libertarian contingent of constipated former Republicans.

You are a true groundbreaker.

I agree with both of them. I think ENM is perfectly right as a responsible parent to block content she feels inappropriate or offensive, but I think U_A makes the more important point of “teaching a child to think for himself.” Perhaps I am biased; I happen to love rap music and I think there lessons to be learned from even the most uncomfortable lyrics.

I have two daughters, 19 and 16, and they have always listened to rap with me. For the last year they even listen to the uncensored Sirius satellite versions of rap songs; yes, they hear songs with the words bitches, hos and nigga. But to be absolutely accurate, some of these rappers claim that they are also pimps and I’ve never learned that it’s wrong to call a hooker a hooker. The women called bitches are described as just that, women who act like bitches in heat and fuck indiscrimantely. I discussed these points with my girls. They know that the rappers who talk about “bitches” and “hos” aren’t singing about their mothers. They also know that sometimes people say shocking, ugly things simply to shock. The girls know that if they respect themselves as young women, they can never be described-by anyone who possesses a shred of credibility- as a bitch or ho.

The “nigga” issue is a bit harder. As a white woman raised in the South, I know too well the ugliness of that word’s history but it is, to some African-Americans, a term of endearment.

Some African-Americans express considerable offence when referred to as a nigga by Caucasian people, but not if they are called the same by other African-Americans, or by some other minority, as a term of endearment.[5] In this case, the term may be seen as a symbol of fraternity,[9] similar to the usage of the words dude and bro and its use outside a defined social group an unwelcome cultural appropriation.

Reasonable, intelligent people know that there is a double standard with the “n” word, and Chris Rock hilariously demonstrated the point in the movie, “Down To Earth.” In the film, Chris Rock’s character, a black comic, dies, finds out it isn’t his time, and comes back as himself but in a fat, old, white guy’s body. In one scene, his old, white body is in a predominately black neighborhood when he hears a passing vehicle playing DMX’s Rough Rider’s Anthem. Rock is black in his mind and starts singing along. Everyone else sees a fat, white dude singing and he gets beaten up.

Maybe the problem of the “n” word today is actually indicative of the progress of the Civil Rights movement. Teenagers don’t really know a time when blacks and whites were “separate, but equal.” Teens today see mixed marriages and have neighbors of every ethnicity. To them, “nigga” is just a word and Rosa Parks is a history lesson they might get a “B” on. You can’t teach experience, but you can teach empathy for those who lived through the experience. Bitches, hos and nigga are just words and we should use them to talk about bigger issues than Imus, Al Sharpton, and hip hop music.

I leave you with Frank Zappa’s 1986 appearance on Crossfire. He discusses the issue of censorship and the idea of using uncomfortable words as teaching tools. The issue at the time was rock music and lyrics.

~ by Miche on April 30, 2007.