Free Speech, Rap, SCOTUS, Supreme Court

Rapper's Delight? Hip-Hop Stars Line Up To File Amicus Brief In First Amendment SCOTUS Case

Will the Supreme Court be capable of separating art from rap lyrics, or do they love opera too much?

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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.

— Rapper Killer Mike, in an interview with Adam Liptak of the New York Times, commenting on the absurdity of the case against Taylor Bell, a high school student who was suspended and forced to attend another school after posting on YouTube a rap song he wrote about two coaches’ alleged sexual misconduct with female students. Bell’s song contains violent imagery, but as Killer Mike notes in his amicus brief, alongside artists including T. I. and Big Boi of Outkast, he’s “never actually killed anyone.”

(The Fifth Circuit rejected Bell’s appeal in August, and he filed a petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court in November.)

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