TESTIFYING ON BATTLE RAPS

This story was already rather nutty to begin with: a teenager at a school in Riverside is being expelled for writing "threatening" rap lyrics. The way the defense has been trying to argue their case is that this is just typical hip-hop bravado, on some, "when I was 12, I went to hell for snuffing Jesus," type illness but the administration sees it differently. (Just to give you an example of the lyrics in question: "So watch what you say about me, I'm everywhere son, And the word of mouth is that I'm carrying guns.")

In any case, in the above-linked story, it seems that my colleague Bakari Kitwana got called as a witness for the defense:

Kitwana said rap vocabulary is misunderstood by people unfamiliar with hip-hop. Battle rap "can get pretty nasty in terms of the language," he said, but the words don't lead to violence. "It's absolutely a verbal challenge," he said. Kitwana called Latour's songs "amateurish" and "standard fare" but encouraged him to continue his efforts.

(In other words: step your verbal game up, lil soldier).

--O.W.