Russell Simmons Says Ho No More

Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons said Monday that the recording and broadcast industries should consistently ban three racial and sexist epithets from all so-called clean versions of rap songs and the airwaves.

Currently such epithets are banned from most clean versions, but record companies sometimes "arbitrarily" decide which offensive words to exclude and there’s no uniform standard for deleting such words, Simmons said.

The recommendations drew mixed reaction and come two weeks after some began carping anew about rap lyrics after radio personality Don Imus was fired by CBS Radio and NBC for referring to the players on the Rutgers university women’s basketball team as "nappy-headed hos."

Expressing concern about the "growing public outrage" over the use of such words in rap lyrics, Simmons said the words "bitch," "ho" and "nigger" should be considered "extreme curse words."

"We recommend (they’re) always out," Simmons, the pioneering entrepreneur who made millions of dollars as he helped shape hip-hop culture, said in an interview Monday. "This is a first step. It’s a clear message and a consistency that we want the industry to accept for more corporate social responsibility."

Last week, Simmons called a private meeting of influential music industry executives to discuss the issue. However, no music executives were associated with Monday’s announcement by Simmons’ Hip-Hop Summit Action Network.

Calls to Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Atlantic Records were not returned. The Recording Industry Association of America and Warner Music Group declined to comment.

Reaction to the announcement was mixed by those who could be reached for comment.

Simmons is a brave man. Hip-hop is the industry where he makes his living, so changes that result in less revenue hurt him as well. Oprah recently had a conference of sorts that included Simmons calling for changes, but so far Simmons is the only person to support those changes publicly.

Simmons’ plan calls for the Hip-hop industry to make changes voluntarily, before people stop buying Hip-hop CDs.

In my opinion, any CD that promotes violence, gangs, drugs, identifies woman as whores, sex objects, or less than men, promotes criminal activity, or blames black problems on whites, is a CD that should not be purchased for any reason. When those CDs stop selling it sends a message to those artists that if they promote messages and ideas that are harmful to their community, their community will not support them with CD purchases. As long as people buy those CDs, they are saying they approve of the negative messages from Hip-hop.

A lot more needs to change in Hip-hop than eliminating only 3 words.