"I'm like a head trip to listen to cuz I'm only giving you things you joke about with your friends inside your living room. The only difference is I got the BALLS to say it in front of yawl, and I don't got to be false or sugarcoated at all. I just get on the mic and spit it. Whether you like to admit it, I just *censored* it better than 90% of you rappers out here. Then you wonder how can kids eat these albums, like volumes. It's funny cuz at that rate I'm going when I'm 30 I'll be the only person in the nursing home flirting. Pinching nurses assess when jacking off with jergins and I'm jerkin but this whole bag of viagra isn't working. In every single person is a Slim Shady lurkin. He could be workin at Burger King, spitten on your onion rings or in the parking lot circling screaming I don't give a *censored* with his windows down and system up. So will the Real Shady, please stand up. And put one of those fingers on each hand up and be proud to be out of your mind and out of control..." That was a quote from "The Real Slim Shady" a song off of Eminem's new Album "The Marshall Mathers LP." Now can you honestly say that that song isn't giving bad ideas to kids? Cens

For as long as there has been music there has been censorship. In fact, in western culture, it is only in the past hundred years that artists have had much independence at all. Eric Nuzum discusses the history of censorship, which dates all the way back to the 19th century, on his web page, A Brief History of Banned Music.

Boehlert, Eric. "Meet the New Boss (Wal-Mart)." Rolling Stone Magazine. 10 July 1997: 30-31

Eric Boehlert, is a notable censorship author for Rolling Stone Magazine. He identifies another party that contributes to the censorship movement, in his article, "Rock & Roll: Manson Mania." This group is called Empower America. This is a conservative organization run by former Secretary of Education, Bill Bennett. This organization has been linked to circulating false affidavits. These affidavits resulted in the cancellation of a portion of the band Marilyn Manson's world tour. (Buehlert, Rock 27)

One thing is clear and that is that there are strong opinions on both sides of the issue.

One that may surprise you is Wal-Mart. Recently, Wal-Mart has been refusing to carry certain artist's albums because they are found by the chain to be offensive. Wal-Mart will refrain from carrying a certain record because it has obscene language, or the cover art is distasteful. Last year Wal-Mart would not carry Sheryl Crow because it included a line about children buying guns at Wal-mart. The chain denies that it sells guns to minors. Crow refused to change the lyrics and her label, A&M, stood by her. (Buehlert, New Boss 30) One of the problems with Wal-Mart's censoring is that they don't have any clear guidelines for censorship. The Wal-Mart executives call it "common sense" standards. Only Wal-Mart decides what us seen as offensive or exploitive material. Albums are judges on a case-to-case basis.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Paik Comstock, Banned Music, William Wood, Rap CDs, Buehlert Boss, Did I'm, Mathers LP, Association America, Advisory/Explicit Content, Society Censoring, popular music, stone magazine, slim shady, rolling stone, television viewing, rolling stone magazine, music censorship, real slim shady, future censorship, marshall mathers, history banned music, censor rap, mathers lp, marshall mathers lp, brief history banned,
Approximate Word count = 1863
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)