   Competition or Censorship?
  Barely three minutes ago (from the moment I started typing this message), I was listening to Bow Wow''s Let''s Get Down   on MTV2 Hip Hop in the background while doing some work on the computer. There''s a line in the song that goes like this:I know this girl named Cindy/Loves to rock Fendi/When she leaves the mall, the stores is all empty/East Coast, New York, my Uptown chic/I see her when I goes to Park and 106/ 106 and Park   is a very popular music chart show on BET, analogous to MTV''s own TRL, but they are also the names of streets in Manhattan: Park Avenue and 106th Street. Believe it or not, MTV2 Hip Hop edited out the mention of "Park and 106"!Competition? Creative censorship? You tell me... 
  Interesting. I happened to catch part of the video on BET while flipping through channels, and I''m pretty sure they didn''t censor those words. I don''t know why they would. Looks like an issue of competition to me.As an aside, Bow Wow got rid off the "Lil''", huh? By the looks of the video, he certainly is moving away from kid stuff, although I''m not familiar with his earlier stuff so maybe he didn''t do kid stuff before. ;  hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ;quote:Original post by mtw  Interesting. I happened to catch part of the video on BET while flipping through channels, and I''m pretty sure they didn''t censor those words. I don''t know why they would. Looks like an issue of competition to me.Absolutely. It does raise interesting questions, though, given the label- and reference-laden nature of hip-hop music. There''s a gentleman who has even started a label chart he calls American Brandstand, to track which manufacturers are getting the most mention (establishing them as pop culture marquee brands); I''ve been meaning to suggest to him also tracking whether the reference is in a positive or negative connotation.quote:As an aside, Bow Wow got rid off the "Lil''", huh? By the looks of the video, he certainly is moving away from kid stuff, although I''m not familiar with his earlier stuff so maybe he didn''t do kid stuff before.While Bow Wow has always been very mindful of his young audience (deliberate choice not to use cuss words in any of his rhymes, which he maintains to date), he hasn''t been particularly kiddie at all. Songs like Ghetto Girl and Take Ya Home are suggestive - sometimes cheeky given his youth at the time of recording - and their accompanying videos tap into the nascent sexual tensions between young boys and girls as well as the concept of older women being sexually attracted to a young boy due to his fame and wealth.In any case, he''s never profane and never vulgar, so his albums never require censorship or parental advisory stickers. Which is rather refreshing. ;  and thus ensues the most intelligent discourse regarding Lil Bow Wow in the history of recorded time. ;  Its only censorship when its from the government. ;quote:Original post by flangazor  Its only censorship when its from the government.   So have you got a substitute word for the described behavior?// -----Ok - I haven''t heard the song, I don''t have access to MTV2 (unfortunately - but I''ve heard they''re cutting back on the music videos there too). But if the song says "Park and 106" and the BET show is named "106 and Park" then that suggests that the MTV censors might be dyslexic. It could be that they censored it because the reference is to an actual place - in the same manner that songs with actual phone numbers are verbotten these days.  ;  My replacement is ''corporations protecting their own interest by not advertising their competitors on their station; while covering their legal bums so no songs that make fun of BET or whomever cause a slander suit that will also name MTV as a culprit of playing a video.''I''m suprised people /actually/ watch MTV. I thought it was just as popular as the weather channel. ;  ...whenever I''m on vacation, I watch the weather channel.Don''t get it here. Why the fuck would I pay my (government-subsidised with my tax money) monopoly cable station $80 a month for it? ;  Thats a weird case of cersorship indeed.A couple of weeks ago while on holiday in Spain, I noticed a radio station (also spanish) had censored the word ''Anthrax'' from Eminem''s Buissiness. This strikes me as pretty odd, since when did this word become so offensive it couldn''t be said in public?The irony is that due to the context it sounded like a more vulgar word had been snipped out. :S 