BILLBOARD BACKLASH: The debate over Ice Cube’s...

BILLBOARD BACKLASH: The debate over Ice Cube’s angry “Death Certificate” album intensified last week as the National Organization for Women branded as “hypocritical” a Billboard magazine editorial against Ice Cube’s controversial album.

The editorial, which appeared in the magazine’s Nov. 23 issue, criticized Cube’s lyrics for espousing “unabashed violence against Koreans, Jews and other whites.” Claiming the album crosses “the line that divides art from the advocacy of crime,” the magazine called on retailers to decide “whether or not Ice Cube’s record is fit to sell or purchase.”

Tammy Bruce, president of the Los Angeles chapter of NOW, said she was “appalled” by the editorial.

“Slaughtering women is clearly an acceptable subject to address in popular music as far as Billboard is concerned,” Bruce told Pop Eye. “Billboard didn’t write any editorials to complain about the dangerous impact of the hostile, misogynistic raps of N.W.A’s Dr. Dre, who is being sued for (allegedly) beating up a female talk-show host. The men who run the industry obviously do not consider one crime to be as serious as the other.”

James Bernard, senior editor of the Source, the nation’s leading rap magazine, accused Billboard of using its powerful position in the music industry to “bully” Ice Cube and “censor” his free speech rights.

“I think it is intellectually dishonest for Billboard, the bible of the music industry, to chastise Ice Cube for writing lyrics that reflect real tensions that exist in the neighborhood he grew up in,” says Bernard.

“This is the same publication that argued last year that 2 Live Crew’s (sexually explicit) song ‘Me So Horny’ represented a significant sociological statement. This is the same publication that didn’t blink an eye when N.W.A talked about ‘takin’ niggas out in a flurry of buckshot,’ but when it comes to Ice Cube rapping angry against non-blacks, all of a sudden Billboard gets offended.”

Bernard and about 50 other journalists and record company executives--including Def Jam Records president Dave Harleston, Def American Records head Rick Rubin and rock critic Dave Marsh--have signed a petition that Priority Records, the label that releases Cube’s music, intends to run as an ad in Billboard.

But Billboard’s opposition to “Death Certificate” is gaining support also.

More than a dozen human rights groups--including the Korean American Coalition and the Chinese American Citizens Alliance--have sent letters of protest to Priority Records.

Billboard editor Timothy White didn’t return numerous Pop Eye phone calls, but issued a statement through his secretary. It read: “We at Billboard have built our lives and careers around a deep love of popular music, but we don’t feel any form or individual style of music is important enough to excuse racism, anti-Semitism and hatemongering stupidity.”