FLORENCE – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday questioned the way some rappers talk about women in songs, saying the lyrics are similar to the derogatory language used by embattled radio host Don Imus.

They are “degrading their sisters. That doesn’t inspire me,” Obama said of some hip-hop artists when a man in a crowd of about 1,000 questioned him. The Illinois senator was responding to a question of what inspired him, and said God and civil rights activists.

Earlier this week, Obama criticized Imus, who was fired Thursday for labeling the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos.”

“I do think we’ve seen a coarsening of the culture,” Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press after the town hall meeting. As a constitutional lawyer, Obama said he was a free speech advocate.

“But just because you can say something doesn’t mean you should say something,” he said. “And I think that we have not talked enough about the harmful images and messages that are sent.”

He said as a parent it was a constant struggle to reinforce his two daughters’ sense of self-esteem.

“I think that all of us have become a little complicit in this kind of relaxed attitude toward some pretty offensive things,” Obama said. “And I hope this prompts some self-reflection on the part of all of us.”

Obama started the day in Charlotte, N.C., at a $1,000 per plate fundraising breakfast in what was his first visit to that state’s biggest city.

The Carolinas are arguably John Edwards’ turf. He was born in South Carolina but spent most of his life in North Carolina, becoming a trial lawyer and winning a term in the Senate before making a 2004 presidential bid.

Edwards won South Carolina’s 2004 primary but has largely been in the shadow of Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton this year.

A Time magazine poll released this week shows Democrats facing the choice between Clinton, Obama and Edwards would give Clinton the edge with 33 percent, with Obama at 26 percent and Edwards at 25 percent. The poll didn’t include other candidates trying to move into that top tier like Sens. Joe Biden of Delaware and Chris Dodd of Connecticut, who have both campaigned here regularly.

Obama and Clinton have generated support here.

Terry Law, 46, attended a Clinton event in February and has met the senator and her husband.

“It’s a close call between him and Hillary,” said Law, an assistant principle. “This will make my decision.”

Latonya Johnson, a 31-year-old single mother, has narrowed her choices to Obama and Clinton. If the primary election were today, she says, Obama won her vote by visiting Florence.

“That actually shows interest in all of the state,” Johnson says.

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