T.I., Killer Mike and Big Boi are using their huge voices and monster platform for different type of cause — but one still focused on your freedom of expression.
The rappers are putting their word where their mouths are — seeking First Amendment protection for a former high school rapper in a case that has been filed to the Supreme Court over a controversial rap song posted online.
They appeared in front of the justices today — in support of the appeal from Taylor Bell — a former high school senior who raps under the name T-Bizzle.
Bizzle (Bell) who was suspended from his Fulton, Miss. high school in 2011 and forced to attend a different school for uploading the track below — bashing two coaches for allegedly sexually harassing several female students.
Their jobs will be to brief the court on hip-hop.
“The government punished a young man for his art — and, more disturbing, for the musical genre by which he chose to express himself,” the brief says, according to the New York Times.
Killer Mike called on the Justices to treat Bell’s song as they would vivid lyrics from the likes of Johnny Cash — who sang “I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die” on “Folsom Prison Blues.”
School officials deemed that Bell was guilty of harassment, intimidation and threatening two-named school staff with gun violence.