BrainMunchie.com

Short and simple… They mean so much, and they can change the hearts of so many people, but I’m not talking about “I Love You”. I’m talking about “Bitch”, “Ho” and “Nigger”. According to hip hop’s Ghandi, Russell Simmons, these words should be voluntarily banned from hip hop music because they are misogynistic and racially offensive. He also took the time to say that nothing should ever be implemented that takes away the first amendment right of free speech, but that free speech includes responsibility. With all of that in mind, this sets us up for another episode of the Emmy nominated series “Make Black People Respect Themselves”. Some “leader” has to step up and make Blacks respect themselves.

The argument of the rap community has been that use of these words were instrumental to artistic expression and that this was one of the reasons why they had the right to use the words while others didn’t. To me this form of censorship was just an easy response to public criticism of the culture of today’s rap lyrics. Censorship has never been a solution to a problem of inappropriate utterances. The true solution has been and will always be to change the hearts of the people that use these words. Censorship is nothing but a mere cover up while the artists continue to live a life of what’s true to their hearts and personalities. Blocking or beeping these words to an rap artist is just like saying to Hugh Hefner “Women are constantly treated like sex objects and because of the role your magazine plays in society we would like for you to voluntarily photograph all of your women fully clothed.” Do you think that’s going to happen? No! Why? Because the first amendment wasn’t written with provisions that made sure no one was offended or allowed that nothing detrimental to society could ever be done.

If you’re asking why I keep referring only to the first amendment as my line of defense, well it’s because it’s a protected right we have as citizens of this country. Every controversy that has arisen as a result of what people have said has been subjective, the “guaranteed right” of freedom of expression isn’t. Issues of morality or principles of living should be argued as such and the people that express themselves should not be “forced” or “coerced” to do otherwise… unless there’s truly a heart felt conviction tied to it.

On the other side of the issue, why are we forcing the artist to stop using these words when the label executives won’t fund the artists’ projects unless some of these demeaning images and words are heavily used? Yo, Russie, holla at your label owner friends and Payola cohorts and encourage them to let their artists go back to making real music, like when hip hop first started and it wasn’t run by a money machine. Don’t punish the artists for dropping knowledge… everybody in the world can’t be a drug dealer or murderer.

Just my thoughts. Holla, let me know what you think.