A popular radio station in New York City, WBLS-FM, plans to stop playing songs with lyrics advocating violence or expressing hatred of women in a new policy aimed particularly at the hard-core forms of rap music that have stirred criticism from some black leaders in recent years.The station's owner, Inner City Broadcasting Corp., which also operates a talk-radio station, WLIB-AM, will begin screening the lyrics of all the songs it plays, a spokesman, Joseph J. Carella, said.
"The station intends not to play certain lyrics that are violent, appear to be violent or are misogynist in nature," he said.
The decision comes amid an escalating uproar over hard-core rap lyrics in recent years. A handful of other stations around the country have moved to impose a degree of self-censorship, refusing to play some songs or playing edited versions.
The decision by black-oriented WBLS, at 107.5 FM, has additional significance because the station was one of the pioneers in developing a musical format aimed at black urban residents, where rap has its roots, and is one of the most popular stations in the country's biggest radio market.
Moreover, Inner City Broadcasting was founded by some of the city's most influential black leaders, including Percy E. Sutton, a former manhattan borough president who is now the company's chairman emeritus, and Mayor David N. Dinkins, who sold his stock to his son.
"I think it's wonderful, and I hope others will follow their example," Dinkins said Saturday after speaking before the Council of Supervisors and Administrations in Manhattan.
"It can't but help," he said, referring especially to the impact that the decision would have on young people. "We need to do anything we can to diminish the violence in the schools."
Like other forms of music popular with young people, including rock 'n' roll, rap has faced criticism over its language, messages and values. In recent years, though, that criticism has increased with the advent of a sub-genre called "gangsta rap," featuring performers like Snoop Doggy Dog, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Too Short and Tupac Shakur.
The "gangsta" form of rap, which originated in Los Angeles, tends to have a grittier, harder-driving sound and explicit lyrics about sex, drugs and gangs, often glorifying violence toward women and homosexuals.
And it has prompted black ministers from New York to Los Angeles to Detroit to speak out against lyrics that they say are immoral and self-destructive, especially for the nation's young blacks.
"It's been a pretty intense issue," Carella said of the station's decision.
Carella declined to single out any songs that the station would no longer play, but he said the station's music directors would begin to screen all songs played on the air, not just "gangsta rap" songs, although they are clearly the focus.