Send Feedback
 

OPINION: Do You Know the “7 Dirty Words”?

Written by RK Byers on August 25, 2009 4:55 am

 biggie

Keri Hilson’s “Knock You Down” was on for the millionth time yesterday and I didn’t mind because I like the song and all but there’s one thing that does bother me about when that song is played on the radio; censors blank out two words that aren’t even obscene!

When Ne-Yo sings, “I used to be commander and chief of my pimp ship flying high…” they blank out the word “ship”.

Then when Kanye spits, “How can you ask someone who’s only average…?” they blank out the word “ask”.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that hyper sensitive censors hit the mute button on words that might have sounded like fouler words or words that were innocuous in most cases and only sometimes slightly risky due to context. Heck, Wanye and Baby’s “Always Strapped” has the second word in its title blanked depending on the time of day or which station you catch it on.

If you think back to 2003, in the chorus to 50 Cent’s “What Up Gangsta“, when 50 spit, “What up Blood, what up Cuz…” the “Blood” part always got blanked. This I found particularly disturbing because the censor, who was clearly showing his affinity for street gangs by omitting the reference to a popular one, also blatantly missed the fact that “Cuz” is just another word for “Crip” (the rivals to the Bloods). This could make it seem as if the radio endorsed the Crips over the Bloods.

By far, in my opinion, the worst case of runaway censorship however had to be on The Notorious B.I.G.’s “One More Chance” remix when Big spit “Navajos creep me in their teepee…” “Navajos” would get garbled-which is similar to being blanked, just with distorted audio- thereby rendering an entire nation of Native Americans too perverse to mention aloud.

The late great comedian George Carlin had a standup routine where he listed the 7 words that were, under all circumstances, too offensive to ever say on television or the radio. I’m not gonna write them here (just click on Carlin’s name if you’ve absolutely GOTTA hear them), but I will give you their cleaner alternatives: feces, urine, womb, copulation, chicken lollipop, female-parent fornicator and the palindrome for “breast”.

What do ya’ll think of censorship? Are there truly such things as “bad” words and if so, which words are they?

Tags: 50 Cent, Kanye West, Keri Hilson, Lil Wayne, Ne-Yo, The Notorious B.I.G.
Recommend to friends!
  • BlackPlanet
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • email

News One Links

 
  • http://www.blackplanet.com/ThaiLuv/ ThaiLuv

    Of course there are “bad” words; the bible speaks about abusive speech. Any word can be considered destructive depending on the context in which it is used. With the emergence and popularity of Ebonics and slang, so many people are taking everyday words and switching the semantics to mean something else. Think, how would you feel if you saw an advertisement of a baby bending over in a diaper and there was a caption that read, “Baby got Back”, would you be thinking about the rear part of her body that extends from the base of the neck to the lower end of her spine? No you wouldn’t because the word BACK can also be defined as the butt, azz, gluteus maximus. I commend editors for being cautious. Children are being horribly mislead by singers and rappers who are sly in their language but her speaking violently and sexually suggestive in a subliminal way. We teach our children that words are power and they are, but most children don’t need THAT type of strength growing up.

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/shindogg/ shindogg

    there r no ‘bad’ words. im against censorship. just look what blackplanet does when i type the words: f**k, s**t, tits, c**t, piss, c********r, motherf**ker. well, some dont get “asterisked” (id say it “astuhrix-sid”) which in itself its very hard word to say which in my opinion is far worse than the “7 dirty words” ever could be. not because of context, but because it doesnt roll off the tongue well. so, the words again that are “***” are fu’ck sh’it, cu’nt, co’cksucker, motherfu’cker. love how i can put a proverbial boot up bp’s a’ss (ass gets bleeped) by puttin a ‘ in the middle of the word. remeber when lady sovereign was on jay leno? they DIDNT bleep it when she did her song which had “FUH-Q” as part of the chorus “hook”. but shes clearly singin “F**K YOU” strapped and navajos aint even goddamn swear words, and neither are ‘ask’ and ‘ship’. and some censor is ignorant to not know “cuz” is gang talk but somehow knows “blood” isnt somebody’s reddish bodily fluid. they also dont bleep mexican gang talk “ese” “cholo” “vato”. why? because it isnt in english? again, stupid. so if there was some rapper who ‘creatively’ does their song in english and makes all the dirty words in spanish for example, they wouldnt bleep it because people don’t know what it means. remember that song “culo”? i looked on google and learned “culo” is “a’ss/a’sshole”

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/caramel_angel85/ caramel_angel85

    Blink 182 actually did a song where they sang nothing but the “7 dirty words” it was quite funny. Censorship has just gotten out of control and as long as people let it happen and don’t stand up and speak out then they can’t expect it to change. Change doesn’t happen because we want it to, change happens because we fight for it

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/getkrunk585z/ getkrunk585z

    i think its silly because most people already know whats really being said…and if the reason why they censor stuff out because if children, well chances are there parents are letting them listen but they should definitely keep censorship on private parts

blog comments powered by Disqus
?>