Don Ameche is not one of these amici but they are impressive nonetheless, Alternatively Titled “I Shot the Sheriff but I did not Shoot the Deputy”

Jamal Knox was sentenced to two years in prison for performing a rap song that was his take on N.W.A.'s "Fuck tha Police." The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the sentence. Apparently he mentioned two specific police officers by name in the song, and they previously arrested him on drug charges. They alleged that the song was a "terroristic threat" and thus not protected by the First Amendment. Mr. Knox appealed this matter to the Supreme Court of the United States.

I know this because Erik Neilson, a professor at the University of Richmond, and Michael Render, one half of Run the Jewels (aka Killer Mike) filed an amicus brief in support of Mr. Knox. It opens with:

Additional amici include musical artists Chancelor Bennett (“Chance the Rapper”), Robert Rihmeek Williams (“Meek Mill”), Mario Mims (“Yo Gotti”), Joseph Antonio Cartagena (“Fat Joe”), Donnie Lewis (“Mad Skillz”), Shéyaa Bin Abraham Joseph (“21 Savage”), Jasiri Oronde Smith (“Jasiri X”), David Styles (“Styles P”), Simon Tam (member of The Slants and petitioner in Matal v. Tam, 137 S. Ct. 1744 (2017)), and Luther R. Campbell (member of 2 Live Crew and petitioner in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., 510 U.S. 569 (1994)), as well as music industry representatives Alan Light (former Editor-in-Chief, Vibe and Spin magazines), Dina LaPolt, Patrick Corcoran, Peter Lewit, and the entertainment company Roc Nation, LLC.

Further amici include scholars Michelle Alexander (Union Theological Seminary), Jody D. Armour (University of Southern California Gould School of Law), Paul Butler (Georgetown Law), Andrea L. Dennis (University of Georgia School of Law), Murray Forman (Northeastern University), Kyra Gaunt (University at Albany, SUNY), Lily E. Hirsch (California State University, Bakersfield), Robin D.G. Kelley (UCLA), Walter Kimbrough (Dillard University), Rev. Emmett G. Price, III, (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary), and Eithne Quinn (The University of Manchester).

For the record, Quinn Emanuel represents Killer Mike, Chance the Rapper, Meek Mill, Yo Gotti, Fat Joe, 21 Savage, Styles P, Luke Skyywalker, and the guy from The Slants who made it into one of my trademark-related comments. That shit cray!



It only gets better. You can read it here, and you should. But if you're too lazy here's the point: old white people, particularly racist old white people, don't understand that hiphop music is a lot of bragging and boasting (addressed here previously, see point four), fictional story telling, spinning of good old-fashioned yarns. It isn't real. Oddly, old white people seem to understand this in other forms of music. As Ice-T said, "I ain't never killed no cop .... If you believe I'm a cop killer, you believe David Bowie is an astronaut."

The Quinn Emanuel folks gave a pretty pointed take:

Additionally, the song is replete with lyrics that defy a literal interpretation. For instance, the lyrics refer to heavy artillery, enough to “shake the motherfuckin’ streets,” and mention all of the “soldiers” in the Ghetto Superstar Committee. Id. at 3a-4a. Neither Knox nor Beasley has served in the military or ever possessed street-shaking heavy artillery. (And neither has served on a committee of superstars, ghetto or otherwise.) The lyrics repeatedly refer to the rappers’ “riches,” id. at 3a, yet Knox lived in public housing and Beasley was represented by a court-appointed attorney. The song threatens to turn the Highland Park area of Pittsburgh into Jurassic Park, but neither rapper was found to have recreated dinosaurs. Id. at 4a.

And what about the lyric “you taking money away from Beaz and all my shit away from me / well your shift over at three / and I’m gonna fuck up where you sleep”? Id. This was singled out by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court as evidence that the rappers had actually learned when the officers’ shifts began and ended. But nothing in the record indicates that either officer’s shift ended at 3:00.

A quick scan of the lyrics reveals a much more likely reason for the reference to “three.” It rhymes.

Yes. Yes it does.

The brief also presents some pretty remarkable psychological studies involving country and hiphop music. I won't ruin it for you, read the brief because it's really well laid out. I will say, however, that shooting a man in Reno just to watch him die, or positing that you can't hang a man for shooting a woman who was trying to steal his horse, is some pretty gangster country (Gangstabilly?) shit. Country music is full of murder ballads! But no one wants to lock up Lyle Lovett.

For what it's worth, I'm stunned that 30 years after N.W.A. released "Fuck tha Police" with the line "when I'm finished, it's gonna be a bloodbath of cops dyin' in L.A." someone else is in jail for singing a different song with the same title and similar anti-police lyrics. I guess the moral of the story is to stay out of Pennsylvania. I'll keep you posted on how this develops.

via GIPHY