T.I., Killer Mike and Big Boi Throw Support Behind Mississippi Rapper’s First Amendment Case

Prominent southern hip-hop figures are supporting a Mississippi high school student who is attempting to gain First Amendment protection for a rap song that got him suspended and sent to a different school. As the New York Times reports, T.I., Big Boi and Killer Mike are among those who signed a brief backing Taylor Bell, whose song, while violent and profanity-laden was in response to allegations of sexual misconduct by two school coaches.

“The government punished a young man for his art," their brief says, "and, more disturbing, for the musical genre by which he chose to express himself." The brief was issued in an effort to convince the Supreme Court to pick up the case.

School officials had disciplined Bell citing harassment, intimidation and, as stated in an appellate brief, “threatening two named educators with gun-related violence.” The lyric in question goes, "Looking down girls’ shirts, drool running down your mouth/Going to get a pistol down your mouth.” While the school board sounds outraged by the song, which Bell posted to Facebook and YouTube, a dissenting judge in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans noted that "the school board has never attempted to argue that Bell’s song stated any fact falsely.”

Other artists who signed the brief include Pharoahe Monch, Boots Riley, Toni Blackman, Jasiri X and Favianna Rodriguez. Killer Mike, whose visible political engagement has spiked as he endorses Bernie Sanders for president, said, "Anyone who is learned in law is capable of separating art and lyrics, whether you agree with them or not, and actual human behavior. I think the courts understand it when it’s Johnny Cash. I think they understand it when it’s Robert Nesta Marley.” The two allusions made reference similar shooting, though it is widely understood that Cash and Marley were not speaking autobiographically.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide on Friday whether to hear the case. For Killer Mike, there should be no distinction of genre when scrutinizing the content of spoken art. To do so, “persecutes poor young men based on their class and color," Mike said.

“I see a kid who saw wrong happening and was outraged about it,” he said. “He wrote a poem about it over a beat.”

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