Bytches Producer Has a Labeling Problem

Of the 46 groups that rap kingpin Russell Simmons either manages or has signed to one of his record labels, he says his absolute favorite is the female New York rap duo Bytches With Problems. He can even recite their lyrics from memory.

There’s just one problem--the lyrics are so filthy you couldn’t print any of them in a family newspaper. But that hasn’t stopped Simmons’ RAL Records label and his distributor, Columbia Records, from releasing the BWP album, “The Bytches.” In fact, the foul-mouthed group’s first single, “Two Minute Brother,” is already at No. 6 on the rap chart.

Columbia and RAL have hosted parties for the group in both New York and L.A. But they’ve adopted an unusual strategy that has become increasingly popular in record industry circles: They’ve taken their name off the album.

The only logo on the BWP album is No Face, the name of a production company run by Mark Sexx, a rap entrepreneur who produced and co-wrote the BWP album and has a distribution deal with Simmons, a key figure behind the success of Run-DMC, Public Enemy and L.L. Cool J.

Sexx isn’t happy about Columbia’s disappearing act. “I think they’re a bunch of hypocrites,” he said. “If the album is a hit, they’re willing to take the money, but they’re not willing to take the heat. Whenever I ask anyone what’s going on, they say, ‘We don’t want to get any flak from this, so you can take responsibility. It it does well, it’ll really pump up your label.’

“Of course when I ask people what happens if this causes a lot of controversy, they can’t give me answer. So I guess that means I’m going to be the fall guy.”

Columbia president Don Ienner refused to comment, preferring that Simmons discuss the issue. Simmons insisted he was “totally supportive” of BWP. He said his RAL logo wasn’t on the album because it was “important for the group to establish themselves on their own.”

“We’re busting our ass trying to market that record,” he said. “I love BWP. It’s my favorite rap album! We don’t try to censor records. We try to sell them.”

Asked about reports that some women at Columbia had refused to be involved in working the BWP album, Simmons responded: “There are black women at every label who wouldn’t think that group is funny. I’ve never had an argument with Columbia’s execs about lyrics. (Sony Music president) Tommy Mottola and Donny Ienner don’t care about nasty lyrics. Donny’s heard the record. He thinks it’s funny.”

But can Columbia stay out of the limelight if a noisy crusader like Jack Thompson, who made headlines with his attacks on 2 Live Crew, starts railing against BWP? The strategy has worked in the past.

“Frankly, it’s a way of hiding from all the abuse,” said Geffen president Ed Rosenblatt, whose label sold 300,000 Andrew Dice Clay comedy albums but didn’t put its logo on the record, which had been acquired by Geffen’s Def-American subsidiary label. “If the record was going to produce a ton of crazy phone calls, we figured, let them find Def-American and (its label chief) Rick Rubin and scream at him, not me or David Geffen. It was just a comedy record, whether you agreed with the humor or not.”

MCA Records also took its logo off a recent album by the Young Black Teenagers, in part because of objectionable lyrics in several songs. MCA also screens upcoming releases to alert execs to potentially offensive material.

Not everyone thinks the strategy works. “It doesn’t insulate Columbia at all,” said Jack Thompson. “If parents were to file a product liability suit against BWP, their lawyer would love this. It’s a very damning bit of evidence because it shows that a record company was so embarrassed it wouldn’t put its logo on the record.”

With BWP’s “Two Minute Brother” already a teen fave around the country, expect to hear a debate between fans defending it as raunchy comedy and detractors dubbing it obscene. What concerns industry insiders is that Columbia, by removing its logo, is removing itself from the debate.

“It’s an easy out,” says a rival label exec. “If this had been 1963, when Columbia was putting out controversial protest songs by Bob Dylan, would they have taken their logo off the records because they thought they’d take some heat?”