Hip Hop Nazis?

As the debate continues over censorship in hip hop, a pioneer has thrown his hat in the ring. Old School rapper Kurtis Blow has made the talk circuit, expressing his concerns over hip hop maintaining integrity. He is particularly concerned about the sexist and violent lyrics that permeate rap today. Along with Al Sharpton, and now even Russell Simmons, Kurtis Blow is the lastest big name to pile on hip hop.

One has to wonder what this push toward censorship is leading to. In Chicago, WKKC, the college radio station at Kennedy-King is self-censoring any violent and sexist language. Self-censoring seems reasonable, and hip hop heads have been debating this since the early 1990s. Self-censorship seems to be the undercurrent of many pro-black thinkers who don't put much faith in government regulations anyway.

Oddly enough, for an artform that grew out of the black ghettos, it seems that white liberals like Bill Maher are stepping up to the plate in the music's defense. Maher not only felt that Don Imus got a raw deal (while he admits that Imus said something stupid and racist) but he thinks that the move toward censorship will play into the hands of big government conservatives.

It definitely gives me something to think about. As a black man and a hip hop fan, I want hip hop to continue its rebellious streak. It would be nice if the rebel spirit were aimed at corrupt government and brutal cops; what we have today is uncreative and vulgar language that speaks to black inferiority. As a journalist and performer, I lean toward Maher - do we really want to start something we can't finish in terms of goverment control of speech?

Here's what bugs me: derogatory statements from dumb rappers will make it tough for a truly political and race-conscious rapper to make real statements down the road. As I recall, controlling what people write and say was tried before with terrible results: Nazi Germany.