The Rubber'Ban' Man

Hip hop seems to be in the hour of crisis at the moment with just about everyone taking shots at it. All I am hearing these days is “hip hop is dead” or “it promotes violence” you know the usual hassle we true hip hop heads get harassed with everyday! It’s all been said before, but a new topic has been raised recently thanks to Mr. Russell Simmons, Founder of Def Jam Records.

Simmons is calling for three words, ‘ho’, ‘bitch’ and ‘nigger’ to be censored in rap music. Quite clearly this triggered a huge debate in terms of censorship within rap music and was eye opening of a sort. People stand clearly divided on this one, some choosing to side with the censoring, others saying there should be no such thing in hip hop.

To understand it fully we have to look back and see that hip hop started as an outlet for the oppressed to be themselves, it was not constrained in any way. People had the freedom to express their creativity and say what they liked. Hip hop was a unique way for people to express themselves without having to feel the pressures of society weighing down upon them. Groups like Public Enemy and N.W.A used this to great effect and turned hip hop into a political tool for the downtrodden. No longer were they a class without a voice, hip hop’s solidarity allowed a true message to shine through, without the government or media being able to manipulate it. Yet the founder of the same record label that was putting out Public Enemy’s uplifting songs has turned his back on hip hop and announced he wants a ban on specific words.

Now to be fair with Russell, hip hop has changed dramatically since the early 90’s as we can all very much testify, but do we really need to compromise our art form because of the change? I believe there is an argument for the banning of these words. Taking into consideration the social pressures to conform and how commercial hip hop has become in recent years I still think Russell has a point. The words he is looking to abolish do not show any creativity, actually they are the opposite. They are degrading, derogative and offensive. The N-word in particular disrespects the pain and suffering black people across the world suffered at the hands of racist oppressors. Surely this word is unnecessary in music and common everyday use, unless it is to strictly make a point, and with it being used frequently it gives us all the more reason to ban it. I find it shows an ignorance in the artist who says the N-word in every other sentence, and I cringe whenever I hear so called ‘conscious’ emcees such as Talib Kweli and Common using it frequently. It only serves as a purpose of keeping a divide between races, with all due respect, I do think we should acknowledge the pain and suffering black people all over the world went through, but the N-word does not honour their ancestors in any way.

Although there is the argument that by censoring these words in rap that we are in some way damaging the integrity of hip hop. Words such as ‘ho’ and ‘bitch’ are used daily on the streets and the “street life” is being portrayed through the music. These words are a reality and what we see in the music is reality. If we limit emcees to what they can rap about then we are missing an important element within hip hop, the right to express yourself fully.

I think KRS-One summed it up beautifully on the Classic joint recently when he said,
“Rappers spit rhymes that are mostly illegal, MC’s spit rhymes to uplift they people Peace, love, unity, and Havin’ fun, these are the lyrics of KRS One”.

When it comes down to it, we have had an influx of ‘hip pop’ rappers that are only out to make money and are talking about the same damn clichéd hip hop subjects of guns, money, women without displaying any love for the art. They are the ones that should be banned and abolished from hip hop, they are not needed and every unnecessary expletive they use tarnishes the art form. Whether you agree with the ban on the words or not is up to you, but when it comes down to it, even without a ban, should we be including these words in hip hop?

Blacksterz