Taking The Rap For Rap -- Record Companies Suffer Backlash About Rowdy Musical Lyrics

LOS ANGELES - Time Warner Inc. is taking the rap for recording "Cop Killer" by Ice-T, a song some people argue invites bloodshed. But it's hardly the only record label with rowdiness and raunch in its repertoire.

Sony Music's stable includes the artists Bytches With Problems, No Face, Tim Dog and Public Enemy. Capitol Records distributes Schooly D and Niggas With Attitude - also known as N.W.A.

Walt Disney Co.'s Hollywood Records was so embarrassed by its rapper Hi-C's explicit record "Skanless," the company removed its name from the album before its release this year.

Some rappers pour forth torrents of obscenities, refer to women as whores and bitches, celebrate grisly murders and mayhem or depict sex and sodomy in the lewdest terms.

Should record companies set limits on what they sell young record buyers?

One top executive in the industry thinks so.

"It's not a matter of censorship," said David Geffen, chairman of Geffen Records. "It's a matter of responsibility. You can make money selling cocaine. I choose not to."

Many labels put out records that feature vulgarity. Hi-C's songs include "2 Ada Time" and nonstop expletives. Tim Dog cut the single "Patriotic Pimp." Schooly D relates in "Die Nigger Die" a conversation with God about masturbation. Public Enemy sang "How to Kill a Radio Consultant."

This is rap music's bark and bite, and ever since this form of inner-city poetry surfaced in the 1970s, the words have grown increasingly salty.

Rap performers can achieve huge success. And such stars as Ice Cube and N.W.A. can sell more than a million albums even with little or no airplay or exposure on MTV.

Now it's big business.

And the marketplace drives sales, said Danny Goldberg, senior vice president of Atlantic Records. "What we're really doing is responding to a cultural need."

David Harleston, president of Def Jam Recordings, said: "In the last year, you've seen rap really become a mainstream form of music. Rap is an incredible kind of music that is born in a uniquely urban experience."

Companies have been uncomfortable with lyrics under their labels before. Never before, though, have lyrics been so coarse.

The forthcoming song "F--- Rodney King," by rapper Willie D, condemns the black motorist pummeled by white police as a weak sellout. "They need to beat his ass some mo" because he urged peace during the Los Angeles riots, the rap song says.

Such recordings ignite sporadic protests, but "Cop Killer" is taking the most intense criticism.

Police blast the song, claiming it encourages killing them; law enforcement groups demonstrated against the song at Time Warner's recent annual meeting.

Last week, the Philadelphia pension fund board voted to sell its shares in Time Warner, worth $1.6 million, in protest. The board invests pensions of more than 50,000 city employees and retirees, including police officers.

Executives say the public dispute may get record companies to pay more attention to their releases, but it won't tone down the angry music. As unpalatable as "Cop Killer" may be, they say, it's more distasteful to silence expression.

"We believe in total freedom," said Jerry Heller, president of Ruthless Records, an independent label that's home to N.W.A. "If our artists want to put it out, we're going to support them all the way."

Said Def Jam's Harleston, "Artists need to be free to say and do what they need to say and do."

But an executive at a major label, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the current climate could force the industry to abandon rap artists, despite their popularity.

"It's very frightening from a record company's standpoint," he said. "It's definitely going to have a chilling effect."