‘Hip hop mogul’ Russell Simmons calls for ‘voluntary’ bleeping of certain derogatory terms used by rappers

Last week, I blogged about a rap ’summit’ of sorts involving some of the top names in rap music and entertainment, including Russell Simmons. In that post, I noted the platitudes and excuses he and others at the ’summit’ issued which suggested they were more interested in shifting the blame from the rappers who engage in hateful – and in some cases popular – instances of glorifying cop killing and denegrating women (especially black women), to the ‘conditions’ which supposedly ’cause’ these rappers to write such ‘lyrics.’

Well, the ’summit’ has produced a ‘resolution’ of sorts that doesn’t really address the problem – it just puts a band aid on it (emphasis added):

The theme of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) is “Taking Back Responsibility.” We are consistent in our strong affirmation, defense, and protection of the First Amendment right of free speech and artistic expression. We have recently been involved in a process of dialogue with recording and broadcast industry executives about issues concerning corporate social responsibility.

It is important to re-emphasize that 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.

HSAN reaffirms, therefore, that there should not be any government regulation or public policy that should ever violate the First Amendment. With freedom of expression, however, comes responsibility. With that said, 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.

In addition, we recommend the formation of a music industry Coalition on Broadcast Standards, consisting of leading executives from music, radio and television industries. The Coalition would recommend guidelines for lyrical and visual standards within the industries.

We also recommend that the recording industry establish artist mentoring programs and forums to stimulate effective dialogue between artists, hip-hop fans, industry leaders and others to promote better understanding and positive change. HSAN will help to coordinate these forums.

These issues are complex, but require creative voluntary actions exemplifying good corporate social responsibility.

Got that? With each emphasis, you’ll note how Simmons puts the responsibility for change solely on “industry corporations” – nothing, not one thing, has been proposed by the activist “HSAN” in order to encourage rappers directly to refrain from glorifying killing cops and spewing their misogynistic messages. It’s corporate America’s responsibility to “bleep” the words out, but the rappers themselves, to Simmons, should just keep on rappin’ ‘em ‘because they shouldn’t be censored.’

Simmons only point in the whole piece was to talk about freedom of speech having responsibility, but he’s laying responsibility only on one half of the equation, while giving the others a free pass. This would be like a defender of Don Imus blaming MSNBC and CBS rather than Imus himself for the “nappy headed hos” comment he made, which started all this manufactured ‘controversy’ in the first place.

Interestingly enough, Simmons is not very concerned when it comes to the ‘freedom of expression’ of others, including Don Imus, which makes him a blatant hypocrite on the issue, because if ‘corporate America’ has the responsibility to bleep out rappers, and rappers don’t bear any responsiblity for what they rap about, then surely Don Imus should have been given the benefit of the doubt and had the MSNBC/CBS (aka the ‘corporation’ Imus worked for) bleep out any offensive words he used. Right?

Also, this is about a lot more than just words, as writer Joan Morgan explains:

Writer Joan Morgan said the announcement amounted to “absolutely nothing.” She called the recommendations “shortsighted at best and disingenuous at worst.” It was, she said, an “anemic, insufficient response” that failed to address homophobia and other issues in certain strains of hip-hop culture and rap music.

Morgan, author of “When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down” said calling for the removal of the three epithets assumes “all of the violence, misogyny and sexism in hip-hop is only expressed in” those words.

“It’s says let’s take the responsibility away from people creating the content and put it back on the corporations” said Morgan.

Simmons, known as the “Godfather of rap”, is already taking heat for calling for this ‘voluntary bleeping’ of offensive words used in rap, but I believe he’s doing the only thing he thinks he can do at this point to ‘preserve’ the artistic ‘integrity’ (cough) of rap music (in order to continue lining his pockets) while at the same time look like he’s doing something about an industry he himself helped create. He doesn’t want to lose ’street cred’ with the rap community, but at the same time feels the pressure to ‘respond’ to the growing criticism the rap industry is receiving in light of the Imus remarks. So he calls for a ‘voluntary bleeping’ of offensive words used in rap songs, and that’s supposed to be a big step towards cleaning up rap music and the rap culture in general.

Uh huh.

If rap music as it exists today faded into the wild blue yonder in a few years, Simmons knows he’d only be looking at residual rap music profits from days gone by, rather than reaping the rewards of that in addition to building up as ’successes’ newer, angrier rappers coming on to the scene. He knows where his money comes from, and he’s not going to step up to the plate and advocate anything meaningful that might have the potential of cutting into his profits. So I view this ‘call’ by Simmons as a transparent attempt by a ‘mogul’ in the rap industry to try and make himself look like he’s addressing the issue without actually doing so. SSDD.

Prior/Related:

• Calling out “hip-hop mogul” Russell Simmons
• Pandermonium: Dem pres. hopefuls set to appear at Sharpton convention
• Senator Obama comments on Imus controversy, tepidly condemns rap music
• VIDEO: More from KC Star columnist Jason Whitlock on the Imus ’scandal’
• Where are YOUR apologies, Jesse and Al? General thoughts on Imus and the lacrosse case
• Next time, Don Imus should just use the “artistic expression” excuse