RAPPERS DEFEND THEIR POETIC SOULS: Def Jam Records co-founder Russell Simmons responds to Barack Obama and comparison of rappers to Imus:

"...you have to talk about the poverty and ignorance that creates such a climate that the poets can talk like that," Simmons told ABC News. "And all the politicians owe them an education and an opportunity for a better life — and maybe they'll say something better."

"People who are angry, uneducated and come from tremendous struggle, they have poetic license and they say things that offend you," Simmons said. "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."

Poetic license?
At least he didn't say they have the "moral authority."

BTW, how much money does a rapper have to make before he will give up the foul language that made him rich?

Technorati Tag: Imus and Barack Obama and Russell Simmons and Rap Music.