By: Karl Shevick
Published: Apr. 19, 2007 - Chicago, IL

Russell Simmons continued his defense of hip-hop in the wake of the Don Imus controversy. The controversy over Imus' remarks has caused many to turn their attention towards hip-hop, wondering why similar statements made by hip-hop artists are accepted.

At a fundraiser in South Carolina last Friday Senator Obama spoke to the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus saying, "We've got to admit to ourselves, that it was not the first time that we heard the word 'ho.' Turn on the radio station. There are a whole lot of songs that use the same language & we've been permitting it in our homes, and in our schools and on iPods."

He further added, "If it's not good for Don Imus, I don't know why it's good for us. If we don't like other people to degrade us, why are we degrading ourselves?"

Simmons responded to ABC news saying, "My response to Sen. Obama is that you have to talk about the poverty and ignorance that creates such a climate that the poets can talk like that and all the politicians owe them an education and an opportunity for a better life and maybe they'll say something better."

Simmons defended hip-hop artists further stating, "People who are angry, uneducated and come from tremendous struggle, they have poetic license and they say things that offend you, you have to talk about the conditions that create those kinds of lyrics. When you are talking about a privileged man who has a mainstream vehicle and mainstream support and is on a radio station like that you have to deal with them differently."