Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Hip Hop Artists to slap "female companions" instead of hos

Hip Hop producer Russell Simmons has requested artists of that genre to henceforth refrain from uttering racially charged and misogynistic words in their music. Following the Don Imus controversy, Simmons took the lead in the African American community in recommending the elimination of words such as "nigger", "bitches" and "hos" from the recording industry, saying that these were extreme curse words, offensive to black men and women.

This call for voluntarily doing away with curse words is expected to result in a number of prominent rap artists modifying their songs and incorporating racially correct and gender sensitive lyrics into their music. For example, Dr Dre will no longer claim that "bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks", instead, referring to the female of the species respectfully as a "woman" while comparing her unfavorably with human excreta. Also, the phrase "putting a nigger on his back", which describes the gunning down of an African American, will henceforth be replaced by "putting a black person on his back".

Mr Simmons said that it was entirely possible for African American hip hop artists to objectify and demean women in their music without having to resort to the usage of politically incorrect terminology in the process. For example, it would be easy for an artist wishing to wax eloquent upon his aversion to fornicating with obese women to do so without titling his song "fat bitch", instead calling it "I like my women well-proportioned". Likewise, a song documenting a rapper's gun fight where he riddles the calf, buttocks, back and skull of his enemy with bullets could remain faithful to its violent theme without including its numerous unnecessary references to the N-word.

In case an artist were to choose to continue using those words in his song, said Mr Simmons, they could either be bleeped out or replaced with silence, while leaving the rest of the sentence and its meaning intact. "Nigger. bitch and ho, these three words were the only things holding back hip hop music from achieving its full potential in this country", said Mr Simmons. "Their expungement will go a long way towards the introduction of gangster culture into America's family-rooms."

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