Top-Rated Station Bans 3 Derogatory Words in Rap

Responding to listeners’ concerns and a threatened advertiser boycott, KPWR-FM, the most popular English-language radio station in the Los Angeles-Orange County market, decided Wednesday to drop the use of three derogatory words in rap songs it plays.

The move is the latest effort by radio stations in the country’s two largest markets to curb the negative effects of explicit rap songs.

On Tuesday, popular New York City radio station WBLS-FM announced that it would ban songs that advocate violence or have lyrics that are profane or hateful toward women or gays. And last month, another Los Angeles station, KACE-FM (known as V-103), banned music that glorifies violence and denigrates women, saying that as a black-owned station, it felt a moral responsibility to the audience it serves.

“We decided to throw down our razor blade and not be a part of that,” WBLS General Manager David P. Lampel said.

KPWR’s decision, though less sweeping than those of KACE and WBLS, is significant because the station has the largest percentage of teen-age listeners in the market. More than 25% of the 1.6 million people it reaches during a week are between the ages of 12 and 17.

The station downplayed a boycott threatened by an Inglewood-based organization known as Stop the Violence Increase the Peace, saying that the new policy was mandated by listeners who expressed their disgust with the words during on-air forums held Friday and Monday.

“We’d been wrestling with this issue before (the threatened boycott),” KPWR General Manager Doyle Rose said. “This is where we think we can be socially responsible and still be true to the people who want to hear the music. . . . It won’t hurt us to take those words out. We don’t believe these words are creating the violence, but we may be, in our own way, endorsing the use of these words even though the intention is not there.”

The deletion of the three words--a derogatory term for an African American and two denigrating references to women--follow a request two weeks ago by Stop the Violence Increase the Peace. The three words are nigga, bitch and ho (whore).

Last week, a group of about 20 organization members--including children--met with the station’s management to explain that by airing those words, KPWR was contributing to social problems and violence. That meeting spawned on-air forums Friday and Monday that featured the opinions of rap artists, community leaders and listeners.

“What really affected us was a lot of mothers calling in and saying, ‘I’m fine with you playing that song, but gratuitous mention of the words . . . concerns me,’ ” KPWR Program Director Rick Cummings said. “They told us, ‘I’ve spent a lot of time teaching my kids that this is not respectful of somebody else’s culture, but I’m afraid you might be telling him otherwise.’ ”

Stop the Violence representatives applauded the station’s effort, although they emphasized that it is only a first step.

“I like to look at it as a substantive first step in the radio station’s direction toward making itself a little more responsible,” said Khalid Shah, Stop the Violence president. “We’ve let them know that the community is watching them. We’ve also talked to the station about the openly violent lyrics. It’s a step-by-step process. What we tried to do was balance community concerns with the business concerns of the radio station. We’re saying we’re tired of this music and something has got to be done.”

KPWR officials said the offending words won’t simply be bleeped, but will be garbled or otherwise masked by music or sounds, depending on the song.

They said that the ban applies to about half a dozen frequently played records, including “Gin and Juice” and “What’s My Name” by Snoop Doggy Dogg, currently the best-selling artist in the country, “It Was a Good Day” by Ice Cube and “I Get Around” by Tupac Amaru Shakur.

Snoop Doggy Dogg is charged with murder in connection with an incident in which his bodyguard fatally shot a man from a car the singer was driving. Shakur faces sexual assault charges in New York and was recently arrested on charges of shooting at two off-duty police officers in Atlanta.

Most rappers and record industry representatives contacted by The Times saw the KPWR move as only symbolic and expressed doubt that it will have much effect on their music or on the urban community. It has long been common practice for rappers to provide “clean” versions of songs to radio stations, while the harsher language remains intact on versions sold at record stores.

“I’ve done edited songs,” said Philadelphia rapper Schoolly D, considered one of the founders of the stark, violent, gangsta rap movement. “I hate bleeps on the radio, so I’ve redone my songs without those words, took out . . . all my favorite words. I understand that some of the younger kids can’t take the harsher words, so sometimes I’m torn whether to put out clean versions so they can get the message of my music too, or whether I should just keep it the way it is.

“But the harsh language has always been around and will continue. If all rappers stop cursing, you think everyone will stop using those words?”

Priority Records, the Los Angeles company that distributes such controversial artists as Ice Cube, Ice-T and Paris, has long provided radio stations with sanitized versions of songs.

Officials at some competing stations took a cynical view of KPWR’s action.

“It’s a Band-Aid,” said Rich Guzman, program director at KACE-FM, which was the first to take a stand against offensive lyrics in rap. “But any effort, be it a Band-Aid or completely removing the negative elements, is certainly a step in the right direction.”