by
- Shit
- Piss
- Fuck
- Cunt
- Cocksucker
- Motherfucker
- Tits
The list above was made famous by the late comedian and free-speech legend George Carlin, who wanted to codify the words that you could never, ever say on broadcast radio or television. Carlin was arrested several times for performing his “Filthy Words” bit, but handcuffs never dissuaded him from being a champion for free speech.
I’ve got Carlin and others like him on my mind right now, because Detroit’s most famous spoken word artist, jessica Care moore, (her choice of capitalization, not mine), is leading a charge to clean up the playlists on Detroit’s urban music stations. With a two-day-old change.org petition that is nearing a thousand supporters, Care moore’s group RADIO-ACTIVE wants songs such as “CoCo” by O.T. Genasis and “Hot Nigga” by Bobby Shmurda, removed from rotation on local hip-hop stations like FM 98 WJLB and Hot 107.5.
As the petition's picked up steam, I’ve seen a couple of misguided debates pop off on social media, claiming a campaign to get truly reprehensible music pulled from the air is a violation of the First Amendment. The fact that RADIO-ACTIVE isn’t asking for government intervention, but is instead asking for the community to put pressure on corporations, indicates that our average Facebook or Twitter user might benefit from a refresher course on civics generally, and the constitution in specific.
I personally don’t appreciate the government protecting me, (or my non-existent children), from naughty words. (Unfortunately, a 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court that allows the FCC to sanction broadcasters for spicy language disagrees with me.) A trickier question is the government should guard our ears from words like cunt or cocksucker, or whether we should censor ourselves, and request the same from the mega-corporations that own our local stations.
The hip-hop community justifiably bristles whenever censorship pokes its head out. Like the other major African-derived music forms in America, (rock, jazz, and blues), hip-hop became threatening and controversial at approximately the same moment that Caucasians first started to notice their children listening to it. Now, it has entered the mainstream. NPR plays hip-hop beats when transitioning from one segment to another, and politicians play rap tunes at their rallies. But the memory of 2 Live Crew being arrested for performing their music in Florida lingers on.
But unlike “Me So Horny”, these two songs really do pose a threat. And although many kids have access to MTV, BET, Youtube and Spotify, our “urban” radio stations still act as a gatekeeper for hip-hop culture, making sure that the seven words at the top of this page don’t hit our ears un-bleeped, while also making sure that all of the misogyny, racism, homophobia, transphobia, glamorization of drugs and violence, promotion of binge-drinking and unsafe sex, and threats to those who participate in the judicial system still make it into songs.
All of this is absorbed into the thirsty brains of our youth. For those who don’t believe that music has a concrete, physiological effect on people, I’ll offer an anecdote: When I used to play rugby, I’d listen to DMX, Rob Zombie, and M.O.P before a game.
I was a fully formed human being, and yet the difference between “playing it safe” and throwing my body at an opponent with almost no regard for my safety was based on which songs I heard on the drive to the match. I don’t think I’d shock the world if I hypothesized that children are more susceptible to the influence of music than adults.
And believe me, the kids are hearing it. A couple of years ago, I volunteered at my old elementary school with the Detroit Reading Corps, a tutoring program that matched adults with 4 and 5 year olds to teach them reading and writing. (You can still volunteer by the way!)
For a year, while I was teaching them two of the three R’s, they were teaching me the choruses of the new songs, complete with miniature booty-wiggles. It was adorable, it was enduring, and it was classroom wide.
Less adorable would be hearing a five year old talking about loving CoCo, and not meaning Hershey’s or Nestle.
From the song, O.T. Genasis makes it clear which substance he is referring to:
Bakin' soda, I got bakin' soda ,
Bakin' soda, I got bakin' soda ,
Whip it through the glass, nigga
I'm blowin' money fast, nigga
Art imitates life, and life imitates art, and people who traffic drugs, (or pretend to), have the right to make art. But maybe we should have to go looking for our trap and drill music, rather than having it served to us on a silver platter.
So yeah, I support freedom of speech. And yeah, I support hip hop. And while I'm no puritan, and I recognize the dangers of a mob's morality being imposed on the rest of us, (cough cough gay marriage, cough cough, state constitutional amendments cough cough), I still think there's a time to let my voice be heard, without asking for the government to step in.
This time around, I’m supporting my community, and the kids that will grow up in it by no choice of their own. I'll sign the petition, because part of my free speech includes my right to politely, (or impolitely), ask a corporation to stop feeding my community bullshit, and expect us to tip the server.
Maybe if Bobby Shmurda, the Brooklyn rapper, and his pals hadn’t been listening to so much violent rap, they might not be in jail for various charges including gang conspiracy, weapons offenses, and murder, all the while Shmurda's song is riding the charts and making an assortment of people wealthy.
If you’d like to sign the petition, here it is.
If you’d like to call me some racy name, I’ll see you in the comment section below, or on Twitter, @BDCanuck.
