Hip-Hop is again under fire.
Right in its Bronx birthplace, a New York City councilwoman and a long-time radio host are partnering to restrict what popular hip-hop radio stations can play for most of the day.
Radio host Bob Law and Councilwoman Inez Barron introduced a city council resolution last Wednesday to limit indecent and profane music between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., when children are likely to listen, according to WPIX-TV.
“The radio stations that market these kind of ideas refuse to play music by artists whose message is more life-giving, so that you have to be a killer rapper in order to get into heavy rotation,” Law told the news station.
Barron cited a Federal Communications Commission rule that it is “a violation of federal law to air obscene programming at any time.”
The resolution is part of a campaign from the National Congress of Black Women dubbed Respect Us.
“The Respect Us Campaign is aimed at ending support for broadcasts from ‘urban’ radio stations that feature music that demeans, denigrates and promotes violence against women, with Black women as the primary target,” the National Congress of Black Women said in a Facebook post.
The initiative, also backed by the National Black Leadership Alliance, focuses specifically on urban radio stations because they target the Black community, organizers said in an October 2018 news release about the campaign.
“These stations program a consistent playlist laced with demeaning and degrading lyrics while constantly using the ‘N’ word in order to make it clear that they are only referring to Black women,” Law said in the release.
