Ashley Judd Responds To Hip-Hop 'Rape Culture' Backlash

"My intention was to support artists to know that they have so much power," she told music mogul Russell Simmons. "They make incredible life changing impressions, particularly on the young. And we have choices everyday with our expressions, either empower and celebrate people or to re-enforce inequality and degradation.

"There are elements, and that is the part that has been so distorted, what I'm being accused of is condemning rap and hip-hop as a whole, and the whole community and when they say community, they mean the fans, and African-Americans, it's become so generalized.

"My intention was to take a stand to say the elements of that musical expression that are misogynistic and treat girls and women in a hyper-sexualized way that are inappropriate. That is not acceptable in any artistic expression, in any cultural form, whether its country music or in television story lines. And if they read more than one paragraph in the book, they would see that all four hundred pages are about that."