Rap Music and Censorship
Rap music has faced significant scrutiny and censorship since its emergence in the early 1980s, primarily due to its often explicit lyrics that address themes of violence and sexuality. This genre, particularly known for its "gangsta rap" subcategory, has sparked a cultural debate about artistic expression versus obscenity. Advocates for rap music argue that it authentically captures the realities of marginalized communities, while detractors, including cultural conservatives and some public figures, criticize it as detrimental to societal values, pushing for radio and corporate restrictions on its dissemination.
Several high-profile campaigns, such as those led by former education secretary William Bennett, have sought to delegitimize controversial rap by pressuring major record labels to drop artists known for offensive content. Despite such efforts, legal challenges regarding obscenity have largely favored rap artists, with significant court rulings affirming their right to free expression. Nonetheless, instances of censorship persist, as seen in the banning of artists like Snoop Dogg from the UK and the modification of album titles and cover art deemed too provocative. Ultimately, the ongoing tension between artistic freedom and societal norms continues to shape the landscape of rap music and its reception in various cultural contexts.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Rap Music and Censorship
Definition: Style of popular music that evolved from an improvised fusion of dance music and disk jockey calls featuring electronically woven segments of songs and sounds with spoken lyrics that often describe aspects of urban life
Significance: The lyrical content of some rap songs has attracted protests from antiobscenity, antiviolence, and antisexism groups
Since the early 1980s the style and content of rap music have alarmed many listeners. Although most rap songs deal with subjects familiar to pop music fans in general, some songs have depicted explicitly sexual or violent subjects. Many of these more controversial songs and acts have fallen under the umbrella known as “gangsta rap,” an ill-defined epithet that often excludes them from radio play lists.
Although defenders of rap music have applauded its realism and frankness, and claimed that it is an authentic expression of the experiences of disaffected youth, opponents have denounced it as an unwelcome addition to the cultural scene. Many have argued that some lyrics cross over the line of acceptable speech and qualify as obscenity.
Among the harshest critics of rap lyrics have been cultural conservatives, such as former education secretary William Bennett, who led an effort in 1996 to encourage the Time Warner corporation to divest itself of holdings in Interscope Records, a producer of “gangsta rap” records. Some public figures with more liberal leanings, such as Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and C. DeLores Tucker, head of the National Political Congress of Black Women, joined Bennett. They specifically castigated Time Warner, Sony, Thorn EMI, Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), and PolyGram for selling rap music containing “degrading and indefensible” lyrics. The goal of their campaign was not directly to censor controversial music, but to delegitimize it by encouraging major recording companies to drop offensive artists and let smaller companies take them on.
Other efforts, however, have tried direct legal action to discourage the production and sale of offensive rap music. Despite such attempts, no rap or rock song was ever found legally obscene, according to the test established in the US Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Miller v. California. According to that definition, obscenity is sexually explicit art and entertainment that lacks any serious artistic or other values, is patently offensive, and appeals to prurient interests, as judged by the standards of a particular community. To be found legally obscene, material must meet all three criteria.
Pop music groups charged with obscenity have occasionally lost in trial courts, but have triumphed on appeal. For example, the group 2 Live Crew was convicted of obscenity in Broward County, Florida, in 1990 for their album As Nasty as They Wanna Be, but this decision was reversed two years later by a federal appeals court, which found that the album’s music possessed inherent artistic value. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld that ruling.
Despite courtroom victories for freedom of expression in rap, rappers and their music continued to be subject to restrictions and censorship. In 2006 the artist Snoop Dogg was banned from the United Kingdom for four years after a confrontation on a British Airways airplane, reportedly resulting in the loss of $15.9 million worth of ticket sales. He was later banned from Norway for two years after trying to bring marijuana through customs. In 2008 the rapper Nas was forced to change the title of an album he intended to name after a racial slur for black people after record stores complained; the album went untitled, but its cover art featured an image of the rapper's back with a letter "N" formed by scars. Rapper Eminem had a bloody commercial for his 2009 album Relapse banned from television. The cover art for the album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West featured a cartoon of West naked and straddled by a white female with wings; it was rejected by many stores and replaced with a version featuring a ballerina. In 2010 the Grammy Awards ceremony featuring Eminem, Drake, and Lil Wayne was heavily edited for television broadcast, with some viewers complaining that unoffensive language was bleeped along with swears.
Bibliography
Benjamin, Jeff. "Hip Hop Stopped: 13 Classic Moments of Rap Censorship." Fuse. Fuse, 8 July 2013. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
"A Decade in Rap Censorship (1990–1999)." Spin. SpinMedia, 9 Aug. 2013. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
Kubrin, Charis E. "A Potential Censorship or Criminalization of Rap Music." New York Times. New York Times, 3 Dec. 2014. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
"Music." National Coalition Against Censorship. National Coalition Against Censorship, 2015. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.
Nuzum, Eric. D. Parental Advisory: Music Censorship in America. New York: Perennial, 2004. Print.