Hip-Hop Stars Support Mississippi Rapper in First Amendment Case

[Recursion]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/21/us/politics/hip-hop-stars-support-mississippi-rapper-in-first-amendment-case.html

In a brief supporting a Mississippi high school student who was disciplined for posting a rap song online, artists including T. I., Big Boi and Killer Mike will explain to the justices that rap music is a political and artistic juggernaut that deserves attention and First Amendment protection.

“The government punished a young man for his art — and, more disturbing, for the musical genre by which he chose to express himself,” their brief says.

The rappers urged the justices to hear an appeal from Taylor Bell, who was a high school senior when he was suspended and sent to a different school for posting a song on Facebook and YouTube that drew attention to complaints of sexual misconduct by two coaches.

...

It is true that Johnny Cash did not actually shoot a man in Reno just to watch him die. Bob Marley did not actually shoot the sheriff. Treating rap lyrics differently, Killer Mike said, “persecutes poor young men based on their class and color.”

I will, however, add that Johnny Cash was in fact jailed in Starkville for "picking flowers", as his song says. He neglects to mention that he was buck naked and higher than the Burj Khalifa at the time...