RUSSELL SIMMONS CALLS FOR HIP-HOP BAN OF CERTAIN WORDS

Russell Simmons and Hip Hop Summit Action Network call for voluntary ban of ‘bitch,’ ‘ho,’ and ‘n***er.’

Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, who is the co-founder and chairman of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, said the organization would like to eliminate words such as “bitch,” “ho,” and the N-word from the clena versions of songs.. A joint statement released by Simmons and President Benjamin Chavis of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network reads: “These three words should be considered with the same objections to obscenity as ‘extreme curse words’.”

Simmons is calling for a voluntary ban of the words after the outrage initiated by Don Imus’ on-air comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team. Simmons believes that music industry has a responsibility to “show respect to African Americans and other people of color, African American women and to all women in lyrics and images.”

“So the poetry it was an expression, it’s still an expression of a group of people, who whether they’re from the trailers today or the projects, still, they’re still people who are mostly..they’re stories are not told at all. So in the capsule when you look back at some of what this poetry is about, it will be the only way to understand the truth about some of our American history. The only real description of the suffering of a lot of our people and the mindet of all the people who are locked out.”

Simmons is walking a fine line because he also understands the historical importance of hip hop. He explained that rap music is a modern day history of sorts. Simmon said,