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Pittsburgh rapper Jamal Knox found himself on the wrong end of the law after dropping a scathing song issuing threats against city police, leading to his conviction for making terroristic threats. With the state’s high court upholding the conviction, Knox is aiming to appeal the decision in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, which looks to be a tall order so far.
Raw Story writes:
Last August, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld Jamal Knox’s conviction on the charge of making terroristic threats against two Pittsburgh police officers in a rap song he posted on YouTube.
Taking a page out of N.W.A.‘s playbook, he had also called his song “F–k the Police” and directed it at the officers, who had earlier arrested him and another rapper on drug charges.
So what did Knox say in his rap that was interpreted as a threat and landed him in trouble with the law? Here’s a snippet in which he names the two officers:
This first verse is for Officer Zeltner and all you fed force b—-es/And Mr. Kosko, you can suck my d–k you keep on knocking my riches/You want beef, well cracker I’m wit it, that whole department can get it/All these soldiers in my committee gonna f–k over you b—-es/F–k the, f–k the police, b–ch, I said it loud.
This may offend, but as the Supreme Court wrote in 2017, “speech may not be banned on the ground that it expresses ideas that offend.” For example, the Court protected the right to protest the Vietnam War by wearing a jacket reading “F–k the Draft” in a public courthouse.
The piece from Raw Story, written by Clay Calvert, director of the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project at the University of Florida, is a fascinating read. Check out the rest here.
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Photo: Getty
Supreme Court To Hear Case Of Rapper Who Threatened Pittsburgh Cops was originally published on hiphopwired.com
