Mother sues over 'explicitly' clean album

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Billboard) - A Maryland mother has filed a class action against AOL-Time Warner, Atlantic Records and Slip-N-Slide Records after buying a "clean" version of Trick Daddy's album "Thugs Are Us" for her 11-year-old son and finding "explicit" language on some tracks. Her lawyer, Jon Pels, says he bought additional "clean" copies of the Slip-N-Slide-Atlantic set, and all had the same content. The suit was filed June 19 in Circuit Court in Montgomery County, Md. "Although we've just been served with the lawsuit, it is clear on its face that the plaintiffs misunderstand the RIAA guidelines on parental labels," a Warner spokeswoman said, adding, "If record companies and artists can be sued just because one parent or judge believes that an album was improperly labeled, then that discourages all record companies from labeling." The lawsuit was filed two days before the National Institute on Media and the Family and other groups wrote to Congress criticizing the various ratings and advisory systems used by media companies as "alphabet soup" and "confusing to parents."