The increasing controversy surrounding rap music, with its rough-edged lyrics about sex and violence, has prompted two very different responses from black oriented radio stations in New York and Los Angeles. Two stations WBLS New York and KACE in Los Angeles, have announced they wont play the roughest and most offensive songs. A third station WPWR opted for a different route, saying it would lose credibility with its audience if it banned music that reflects the language of urban life. "We've got to speak their language" if the message of the record is "Don't call me a bitch" we have got to allow the artist to get the message across. And sometimes it is necessary for the artists to use language that grabs people's attention. Inner City broadcasting one of the largest black owned broadcasting firms in the country, announced that its stations would not play music that is profane or advocates violence, particularly against women or homosexuals. They announced they would not air songs with the word's "bitch" and "ho" to refer to women. What we are doing, as responsible broadcasters who are licensed to serve our listeners, is simply exercising our best judgment, said Pierre Sutton, Chairmen of Inner City. What bothers me is that they censor the music because they are saying these words are portraying bad ideas, but they are just singing about what is all around us and what we see. It is not like saying theses lyrics are anything new. A person or a child is going to hear them regardless of any song with so-called profanity in them. The.
people singing are just telling the truth. I think a child has a better chance of hearing profanity in there own home or school then by hearing it in a song. The recent rap hearings on Capitol Hill bore all the elements of 1985's dramatic Parents Music Resource Center debate-heated testimony talk of labeling explicit lyrics and plenty of music biz attention.