Hot 97.7 FM Bans Degrading Rap Lyrics
Friday April 20, 2007
Less than a week after CBS and MSNBC fired shock jock Don Imus for calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos," a Mississippi-based hip-hop radio station Hot 97.7 WRBJ-FM initiated its own crackdown on sexist and violent rap lyrics. Michael V. Roberts Sr., chairman and CEO of Roberts Broadcasting Company which owns Hot 97, issued a statement to employees on Wednesday.
"As an African-American owner of four TV stations and one radio station, I am announcing, effective immediately, that music degrading women and other members of our community will no longer be played on Hot 97.7, WRBJ-FM," said Michael Roberts. "The rule applies to all broadcasting operations owned by my brother Steven and me."Roberts also sent a letter to CBS CEO Leslie Moonves, thanking him for dismissing Don Imus and for setting an example for media executives worldwide. He forgot to mention that the real reason Imus got fired was because advertisers extricated their sponsorship from his radio show.
Comments
Do you think this will really last? And who’s the judge of what songs are degrading? It’s a good concept but I think it will be almost impossible to enforce
who’s the judge of what songs are degrading?
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Good question.
Soo……um…..what are they playing? …aside from commercials…….
I think that the only reason Don Imus is being thought of as the center target of his comment is because of his race. Its not made a big deal when African American men can any other woman a name of that content so he shouldn’t have to deal with this because truly women call themselves a lot more everyday. You can’t let yourself be a victim or even cateogorized with others because of their stupidity. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and he was just giving his?
It is good to see that an Aferican-American is showing intollerance towards such degradation.
now we can get those wack dudes that run the radio (luda) off
I say Bravo, slap it to the hip hop as well. Don Imus was targeted because he is white.
I like rap and I like Imus. I don’t feel that either are targeting anyone person in particular. If you don’t like it turn it off, why punish everyone.
In this day no one can say anything about anyone. Serious or not serious.
Everything has to be PC. Everybody is offended by everything.
It’s keep your mouth shut. Don’t be a presumed “racist”, “homophobic”, and or “whistle blower”, etc.
It’s as if we have all had sand paper rubbed on our skin and we can’t tolerate one more rub.
As a world we are the war, the time bomb ready to self detonate at any minute.
If I were an African American living today I would feel ashamed of what my race has become, this is not what Martin Luther King was preaching, it isn’t the direction he was going. Forget reparations, Retribution? I doubt that was the Dream. For the worlds sake get over yourselves and move on with a better life for everyone. Let go of the anger and start forgiving an unfortunate history.
So now Imus is the whipping boy? This man does more good than he could do bad. More people should try to contribute to society as the Imus family has. Because of a random non serious comment that offended some very angry black men this man’s life’s work should end, be interrupted, and or just go away?
I believe that the black community should take a closer look at the motives of the angry black men that presume to represent the entire black community as a whole. The white man doesn’t keep the black man down, the pendulum has completely swung in the opposite direction and you are doing this to your own race.
So let’s all pile on and blame someone for such an insignificant event.
Just because it can be done doesn’t mean that it should be.
I truly believe that Imus is a bright spot on a workday morning in a very stressed world. He brings a smile, good music, and he provides hope. It is truly a sad day when we microscope everything and derive only bad from a program that has a tremendous amount of diversity and integrity towards mankind.
The hypocrisy of all of this is too much. How could Imus’ off hand remark be malicious when he didn’t even know who those girls were when he made the mistake of opening his mouth.
4/9/07 Krista M Daniel, Maryland
^^^^^^^^^^^^^uhh sorry sweety…Don Imus works on a publicly heard radio station owned by NBC. He is not a rap artist with an album where he can say whatever he wants and all they have to do is slap a PARENTAL ADVISORY sticker on the CD case. Kids can hear that stuff on Imus’ radio show whereas rap music you have to be a certain age to buy and it’s the parents fault for letting them hear it. And for a man to call a woman a “ho” let alone included “nappy headed” which is a degrading term to African Americans which we rarely use ourselves.
You need to seriously learn more about our culture other than thinking our men are degrading our woman all the time.
You should be more ashamed of your Caucasian heritage on behalf of bigots like Imus who know nothing other than what they want to see and hear. Then make lame excuses about how rap music influenced his remarks as just a terrible ploy to get everyone’s attention off of what he said…which apparently worked.
I think IMUS is a rasist. And I think we should speak how we feel,so we can know how a person really feel about our race and our culture . We should take some of the blame,not for what he said but how we express our race in our music and in our culture. We need take a stand an turn our music voice into something postive. Thanks Cathy Harris
I’ve been away from NY from a while. From what I remember, Hot 97 was all about making money. I’m very pleased that they (or should I say this Michael Roberts guy) decided to take a stand on this issue. I’m impressed.
Good, our young people need positive influences. They do not need harsh lyrics or rappers degrading anyone’s gender, color or creed to enjoy the music. There are so many other things to be talked about and the music will be equally entertaining. Billy Dee, Jammin FM
Don Imus is being made an example. This is a double standard and he should not have been fired. If it is wrong for him it is wrong for everyone. No one should ever use those terms. He has apologized now give him his job back and let’s move on. Billy Dee, Jammin-FM
www.jammin-fm.com
I am not African American; I am Hispanic. But I am very glad to see how so many African Americans are taking this situation and looking at themselves in Hip Hop. As an art form and a cultural force, no one can deny the power of Hip Hop, but it pains me to see such strong an powerful and proud people treated so poorly and wrongly in that music. So many years and years your mothers and fathers cried in direct and ruthless slavery. Only after war and bloodshed and time and conversion of hearts did the African American come this far. But even NOW, the position of so many African Americans, especially the women, is the crucible of hardship. Mary McLeod Bethune said,”The true worth of a race must be measured by the character of its woman.” This profound statement rocked me to my core when I heard it…. that’s right, I did not read it. I HEARD it in a rap song along time ago. This important lesson was taught to me in a rap song. My father and mother taught me long ago, but the power of that music and the message was especially effective. African American MEN, cherish, defend, and HONOR your women, because there is more to your bloodline than just who we see today. I would never put up with anyone treating my mother, sister, aunts, cousins, ancestors, children, or descendants with the disrespect that is poured and heaped on your people in some Hip Hop music. Hip Hop is a force of your culture … it can spin you all headlong into the mud and the chains of every variety of slavery to the chorus of you mothers’ lamentation. OR You can be kings and queens again.
BRAVO MIKE!
It’s about time…we need to keep this moving throughout the media (radio, tv, etc..) It’s time for US to TAKE our communities back (BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!)
I Like all music and I listen to rap.True rap does degrade women but what music doesn’t imply something.I’ve recently read an article that says rap music raised teenage pregnancy.All music voices there opinion off of everyday scenarios and situations.So why should rap be the target.I feel that Imus should have been punished
i think that this whole imus thing is old for on and two all he did was take the heat off of him and made an excuse fo what he did and thats not right. people in this world dont get punished for not knowing what they say is wrong but for being ignorant enough for saying what they dont mean. also i would like to add their are way more inportant things (Bush and this lovely world he has made LOL) going on!
Right on Billy Dee,I agree with you.AndI love the hip-hop culture,Let keep positive and real ! There is alot of other issues in the world that we can focus on instead of degrading our women. HIP-HOP will not suffer eithier keep it jammin , Billy Dee (SMOKIN- BUDDY) L.Jaye
This message is in response to Krista. First and foremost, I’d have to agree that we African-Americans do need to stop blaming the white man for our problems and build our strength from within. However, what you’re missing in your diatribe is context. So you’d like us to just “get over” slavery, being disenfranchised by way of incarceration, underpriviledged education and the Willie Lynch syndrome. Of course it is easy to be so dismissive because you’re not one of us, and therein lies the problem. Building up black self-worth is difficult as is with the predominantly negative stereotypical images of blacks in our media, so to simply excuse Imus’ degrading comments would only make our job of “getting over” things that much harder. So pardon me if I don’t care if you can’t listen to your favorite radio host in the morning. I’m too busy being trying to focus the energy of our “angry black men” on something positive to really give a sh…
As for the topic, kudos to Mr. Roberts for making a stand. Although I believe that the tactic is ineffective, I think that it has to start somewhere. I think a better solution would be to actually play the good music that is already out there. Go figure…
Corrections…
“I’m too busy
beingtrying…”and
“taking
makinga stand…”Don’t want y’all to think I’m not intelligent and all that.
Duepayer.com
Hip-Hop Forever