In case you didn't see this one...
Foul-Mouthed Rappers Get Booted From the Air
By Tracy Stokes, BET.com Staff Writer & Wire Services
Snoop, 50 Cent and all other foul-mouthed, hip-hop artists, your air time is up at one Black-owned radio station.
Roberts Broadcasting Cos. LLC, which operates four TV stations and a hip-hop radio station, said violent, sexist and racist music is being ditched from its radio playlist, The Associated Press reports.
Rappers On The Defensive
Rather than censoring the offensive words of the songs, the station, WRBJ-FM in Jackson, Miss., is banning them altogether.
"We take tremendous pride in being African-American and refuse to let anyone, White or Black, strip us of that pride," said Steven Roberts, president and chief operating officer of the company, adding that if it's offensive in any way toward women or Blacks, it's not going to be played.
The decision by brothers Michael and Steven Roberts, who run the company, comes less than a week after Don Imus was fired by CBS Radio for calling members of the Rutgers Women's Basketball Team "nappy-headed hos."
Many Black activists, community leaders and organizations, along with Imus defenders say “hip hop made him do it,” putting rappers on the defensive.
Drug-dealer-turned-rapper Snoop Dogg, who activists point to as one of the most egregious offenders -- has walked women out on stage with dog leashes around their necks and shoots pornographic videos -- was quick to try and draw a distinction between gangsta rappers and shock jock Don Imus.
Speaking to MTV following the Imus debacle, he said: “It's a completely different scenario. Rappers are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports. ... We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel. I will not let them mutha******* say we in the same league as him."
Terrill Weiss, general manager of WRBJ-FM, said there’s probably a higher incidence of derogatory language in general in hip-hop music because it's a language of the street.
"It reflects life, and their art involves a lot of language that could be deemed objectionable." Still, Weiss said of the ban by Roberts’ management, "I'm glad they made a decision to take a stand.”
Respecting Ourselves
In a letter to the staff of WRBJ-FM, Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Roberts wrote that the Imus case "has certainly put new fire under the need to respect ourselves first -- specifically the hip-hop nation and rap music's role in desensitizing our country to derogatory comments toward women and each other."
Last Friday, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons called a meeting in New York with other hip-hop chiefs to respond to the growing criticism of rap. He said that hip hop is a worldwide, cultural phenomenon that transcends race and doesn't engage in racial slurs.
“Don Imus' racially motivated diatribe toward the Rutgers Women's Basketball Team was in no way connected to hip-hop culture," he said. " ... Don Imus is not a hip-hop artist or a poet. Hip-hop artists rap about what they see, hear and feel around them, their experience of the world. Like the artists throughout history, their messages are a mirror of what is right and wrong with society. Sometimes their observations or the way in which they choose to express their art may be uncomfortable for some to hear, but our job is not to silence or censor that expression. Our job is to be an inclusive voice for the hip-hop community and to help create an environment that encourages the positive growth of hip hop."
Meanwhile, the Rev. Al Sharpton, who was due to present the James Brown Memorial Culture Impact Award to former Arista and current Island Def Jam boss L.A. Reid during the National Action Network's annual conference in New York this week, has cancelled the presentation and instead said he intends to focus his energies in targeting corporations that support "gutter rap."
Several rappers under Reid's label frequently use racial and sexual epithets.
Roberts Broadcasting Cos., LLC, operates broadcasting units including four television stations -- WRBU in St. Louis; WZRB in Columbia, S.C.; WAZE in Evansville, Ind.; WRBJ in Jackson, Miss.; and a hip-hop radio station, WRBJ-FM in Jackson, Miss. They also own an aviation company, shopping centers, hotels, construction firms and residential developments.
Did Roberts Broadcasting do the right thing, or are they censoring artistic expression? Is this the beginning of the end of hard-core hip hop?
From Satingun:
This ain't right! Artists have the same rights to freedom of speech as everyone else. They allow the KKK to say whatever they want, yet are gonna take rappers off the air??? Energies of artists and fans need to combine to fight against this kind of censorship!
Foul-Mouthed Rappers Get Booted From the Air
By Tracy Stokes, BET.com Staff Writer & Wire Services
Snoop, 50 Cent and all other foul-mouthed, hip-hop artists, your air time is up at one Black-owned radio station.
Roberts Broadcasting Cos. LLC, which operates four TV stations and a hip-hop radio station, said violent, sexist and racist music is being ditched from its radio playlist, The Associated Press reports.
Rappers On The Defensive
Rather than censoring the offensive words of the songs, the station, WRBJ-FM in Jackson, Miss., is banning them altogether.
"We take tremendous pride in being African-American and refuse to let anyone, White or Black, strip us of that pride," said Steven Roberts, president and chief operating officer of the company, adding that if it's offensive in any way toward women or Blacks, it's not going to be played.
The decision by brothers Michael and Steven Roberts, who run the company, comes less than a week after Don Imus was fired by CBS Radio for calling members of the Rutgers Women's Basketball Team "nappy-headed hos."
Many Black activists, community leaders and organizations, along with Imus defenders say “hip hop made him do it,” putting rappers on the defensive.
Drug-dealer-turned-rapper Snoop Dogg, who activists point to as one of the most egregious offenders -- has walked women out on stage with dog leashes around their necks and shoots pornographic videos -- was quick to try and draw a distinction between gangsta rappers and shock jock Don Imus.
Speaking to MTV following the Imus debacle, he said: “It's a completely different scenario. Rappers are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports. ... We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel. I will not let them mutha******* say we in the same league as him."
Terrill Weiss, general manager of WRBJ-FM, said there’s probably a higher incidence of derogatory language in general in hip-hop music because it's a language of the street.
"It reflects life, and their art involves a lot of language that could be deemed objectionable." Still, Weiss said of the ban by Roberts’ management, "I'm glad they made a decision to take a stand.”
Respecting Ourselves
In a letter to the staff of WRBJ-FM, Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Roberts wrote that the Imus case "has certainly put new fire under the need to respect ourselves first -- specifically the hip-hop nation and rap music's role in desensitizing our country to derogatory comments toward women and each other."
Last Friday, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons called a meeting in New York with other hip-hop chiefs to respond to the growing criticism of rap. He said that hip hop is a worldwide, cultural phenomenon that transcends race and doesn't engage in racial slurs.
“Don Imus' racially motivated diatribe toward the Rutgers Women's Basketball Team was in no way connected to hip-hop culture," he said. " ... Don Imus is not a hip-hop artist or a poet. Hip-hop artists rap about what they see, hear and feel around them, their experience of the world. Like the artists throughout history, their messages are a mirror of what is right and wrong with society. Sometimes their observations or the way in which they choose to express their art may be uncomfortable for some to hear, but our job is not to silence or censor that expression. Our job is to be an inclusive voice for the hip-hop community and to help create an environment that encourages the positive growth of hip hop."
Meanwhile, the Rev. Al Sharpton, who was due to present the James Brown Memorial Culture Impact Award to former Arista and current Island Def Jam boss L.A. Reid during the National Action Network's annual conference in New York this week, has cancelled the presentation and instead said he intends to focus his energies in targeting corporations that support "gutter rap."
Several rappers under Reid's label frequently use racial and sexual epithets.
Roberts Broadcasting Cos., LLC, operates broadcasting units including four television stations -- WRBU in St. Louis; WZRB in Columbia, S.C.; WAZE in Evansville, Ind.; WRBJ in Jackson, Miss.; and a hip-hop radio station, WRBJ-FM in Jackson, Miss. They also own an aviation company, shopping centers, hotels, construction firms and residential developments.
Did Roberts Broadcasting do the right thing, or are they censoring artistic expression? Is this the beginning of the end of hard-core hip hop?
From Satingun:
This ain't right! Artists have the same rights to freedom of speech as everyone else. They allow the KKK to say whatever they want, yet are gonna take rappers off the air??? Energies of artists and fans need to combine to fight against this kind of censorship!
