Popular entertainment has often come under attack by the establishment for one reason or another. For example, when Elvis first twitched his pelvis on national television, the cameras were told to only film from the waist up (Hull 17). Songs such as ôLouie Louieö and ôWake up, Little Susieö were also considered controversial when they first came out (17). Then, in 1966, a number of Christian groups believed that Beatles music was ôcorrupting the youthö and lobbied to have it banned from radio play (Hull 51). More recently, Rap and Hip-hop music, which grew out of a grassroots need to express the experience of a disenfranchised portion of the population, have also come under attack by certain groups who consider the lyrics to be inappropriate, corrupting, or otherwise politically incorrect. This paper will argue that it is the right of Rap musicians, just as it is the right everyone who lives in the United States, to be able to express themselves and their experiences freely, without fear of reprisal or censorship.
One of the most compelling reasons that Rap music should be free from censorship is that it is a First Amendment right to be able to express oneÆs self freely. Specifically: "Congress shall make no law . . . prohibiting . . .or abridging the freedom of speech" (www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/billrights). This amendment is not restricted to any specific class of people, nor does it limit free speech to that which is ôsensitiveö or ôpolitically correctö. It simply states that there shall be no law prohibiting or abridging the freedom of speech.
That law has been upheld in courts for over 200 hundred years even in defense of such groups as the Ku Klux Klan. For example, at Auburn University two White fraternities û the Beta Theta Pi and the Delta Sigma Phi û had a Halloween party complete with mock lynchings, members parading in blackface, and other members wearing homemade Ku Klux Klan hoods (L...