NEW YORK (Reuters) - Prominent U.S. hip-hop executive Russell Simmons on Monday recommended eliminating the words "*****," "ho" and "******" from the recording industry, considering them "extreme curse words."

The call comes less than two weeks after radio personality Don Imus' nationally syndicated and televised radio show was canceled amid public outcry over Imus calling a women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos."

Simmons, co-founder of the Def Jam label and a driving force behind hip-hop's huge commercial success, called for voluntary restrictions on the words and setting up an industry watchdog to recommend guidelines for lyrical and visual standards.

"We recommend that the recording and broadcast industries voluntarily remove/bleep/delete the misogynistic words '*****' and 'ho' and the racially offensive word '******'," Simmons and Benjamin Chavis, co-chairmen of the advocacy group Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, said in a statement.

"These three words should be considered with the same objections to obscenity as 'extreme curse words'," it said.

Ho is slang for whore and commonly used in hip-hop music while ******, a derogatory term for blacks, is among the most highly charged insults in American culture. The slur "nappy," used by Imus, describes the tightly curled hair of many African Americans.

CHANGING STANCE

Monday's statement changed course from another one by Simmons and Chavis dated April 13, a day after Imus' show was canceled, in which they said offensive references in hip-hop "may be uncomfortable for some to hear, but our job is not to silence or censor that expression."

The Imus controversy stoked a debate in the United States about how to deal with inflammatory words that are widely considered highly offensive but at the same time commonly and casually used in youth culture.

U.S. black leaders such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have led the charge to suppress offensive words while many artists have argued for freedom of expression. New York City declared a symbolic moratorium on the so-called N-word in February.

"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," the statement from Simmons and Chavis said on Monday.

The network recommended the formation of a Coalition on Broadcast Standards that would consist of leading executives from music, radio and television.
I dont' mind adults listening to what they want. But this crap shouldn't be on regular radio and TV so little kids can hear. I really didn't like explaining what a pimp and a ho was to my 8 year old nephew who said he wanted to be a pimp. He thought it was a cool guy.:rolleyes:

Well that's practically what "pimp" means these days. Kind of like the N-bomb has morphed into "ni99a"...........and it's totally acceptable for black folks to say it to each other. I agree the lyrics are extreme in music (not just hip-hop though), but I think the radio does a decnt job of censorship.

What they (entertainment industry) are feeding us and calling it entertainment is a little suspect these days. Yeah, I am just as guilty on some levels, because I listened and bought into the whole thing. However, we gotta be responsible adults and parents and not allow kids to be exposed to things that we know are wrong! You can't stop them from being exposed everywhere, but you can explaine right and wrong.

I remember in the 80s when groups like the 2 Live Crew were strictly underground and you could only find their stuff if you were part of the culture that bought their stuff from them directly or had a friend make you a copy. When the FCC dropped their regulations around 1990, they opened the floodgates for whatever to be said on record or radio. Then it spread out from the subculture to mainstream middle America. Now it is a big part of all forms of media.

I am glad steps are being made to clean-up media and I hope it works. Things have gotten out of hand.

Well that's practically what "pimp" means these days. Kind of like the N-bomb has morphed into "ni99a"...........and it's totally acceptable for black folks to say it to each other. I agree the lyrics are extreme in music (not just hip-hop though), but I think the radio does a decnt job of censorship.
That's the whole problem. People think the N bomb IS acceptable now due to all the junk out there. It isn't acceptable for "black folks" to say it any more than anyone else. It would be like two women thinking it was acceptable to call each other their C-nts. Doesn't fly. The radio does a decent job, but kids just download the songs onto Ipods. As was said by BlakSpyda, it used to be very difficult to get and shunned, now it is everywhere and has really set racial equality, racism, women's rights, etc. back a good deal and kids of other races, while, Latino, etc. now view this derogatory language as accepable. Words have power.

They affect perception just as appearance does. Do you remember the movie Hamberger Hill? One of the best scenes is when the veteran takes the new guy aside and explains that dropping the F bomb all the time may sound cool, but when you get back home, you will automatically use it by mistake and say things like," Its F-ing great to be home mom" and "Pass the F-ing mashed potatoes". Not cool. Same thing here.

Sure all music now to some degree has this language, but the vast majority does because of hip-hop/rap and the rest are basically following their lead due to the money made, mostly because it shocks and pisses people off, rather than because it is quality music. Half of it is ripoffs of rock songs. The Who, Ozzy, etc. :rolleyes: