A 19 year-old Florida man was arrested last week while rapping a Lil' Boosie song. What crime did he commit (other than being a Lil' Boosie fan)? A mother says he was spewing profanity that she believes her young children should not have to listen to. He was taken to the county jail and charged with disorderly conduct.

Now, what in the hell (no pun or profanity provocation intended). While I believe the "chil'runs are our future" and probably shouldn't be subjected to hearing cuss words, I don't think it's worth throwing a kid in jail over. I'm sure these kids have soaked up more knowledge of naughty words at school than they have walking down the street. I think this lady needs to get a life for calling the police, but I'm really disappointed that the cops would actually throw a kid in the clink for rapping as he walked down the street. It's not like he was menacing the kids or knocking over a convenience store. He was reciting a song that probably gets played on the radio ten times a day for the whole world to hear.

This news comes on the heel of yet another "anti hip-hop" campaign that has aimed its sights on telling kids how to dress. The "Pull 'Em Up" group says people should not sag their pants and have enlisted the help of several rappers to help their cause. Now I don't know if it's money or sheer stupidity that has driven people like The Ying Yang Twinz (never mind — in their case it's sheer stupidity) to support this kind of buffoonery, but I think it's despicable. Do I think rocking your pants half way around your knees is the hotness? No, but that's beside the point. I also don't like it when people wear tights that show off every fold of their body, but that's not my call to tell them how they can or cannot dress.

At the end of the day, I'm not exactly standing up for either of these groups being targeted by groups that seem to have underlying (or blatant) anti hip-hop sentiments. What I am standing up for, though, are people's rights when they aren't really hurting anyone. I think we've seen hip-hop being made a scapegoat quite enough (who can forget the white Roger Williams board member who says he said the N word because he "heard it in rap music") and now it's time for parents concerned about the language their kids hear to do what they need to do and that's raise them to know better. 

–J from the Bay