“It’s shocking. He has no criminal record. Nothing in his lyrics say go out and commit a crime. Nothing in his lyrics reference these shootings, yet they are holding him liable for conspiracy. There are huge constitutional issues…” -Brian Watkins, Duncan’s attorney.
Brandon Duncan, AKA Tiny Doo, is a rapper in California. Recently, he’s been taken to court because the California government disagrees with the method in which he expressed himself lyrically. How is this possible, you may ask. Read on, get outraged and spread the information.
Let’s step back for a second; when Tupac released 2pacalypse Now in the early 1990s the government wouldn’t leave Tupac alone. He spoke truths they didn’t want to hear any more than they wanted the PEOPLE to hear. Even the Vice President had anger over someone talking about the truth in such a way as Tupac did; how dare he! (sarcasm). His complaints against Tupac and the brilliant album were made public, and he remained under government watch.
The moment you start speaking up and getting attention to be the point in which the government swoops in…to do everything BUT protect his from harm… Instead, they want to ‘protect’ us from truth and self expression
While Tupac and his situation was bad enough, the current issue related to rapper Tiny Doo, or Brandon Ducan, takes the hatred for rap lyrics a step further. This man has no criminal record (nor did Tupac at that time), and doesn’t incite violence. Even if his words did, however, every person must be responsible for themselves. How many other rap artists DO talk about killing? Far more than just this one man and his album. No matter what the fans do, their actions are not to the fault of the musician! The government knows this, there has to be some hidden reasoning for wanting to put this man away for LIFE…
No record, no arrests, yet still it is prosecution and life in prison which he faces. Not because of any actions taken, other than writing. The content in his album landed him with the charge of
“gang conspiracy” by a desperate prosecutor who’s placing blame on Mr. Duncan for his self expressive album. An album, the prosecutor argues, which will only be paying Mr. Duncan to ‘incite violence’, thus meaning he’d be making money off of violence; which is unjust…and also, untrue. Nevertheless, he is arguing Duncan promoted gang violence as a means to help him to “sell more albums”.
What a joke! The vast majority of rappers (not all but the majority) may speak of gangs, shootings, drugs (which the CIA admit they brought into Black neighborhoods), ghetto survival and the like but it is by far not just “Tiny Doo”. His lyrics weren’t the first nor will they be the to complete an album.
Expressing oneself via words is preferred and should be praised compared to the alternative of doing what is spoken of. Take the amazing piece of art Eminem wrote about Kim for example. Had he done it that’d be different. Instead, he created a piece of art and poetry that left many stunned. The song Kim is my favorite song by Eminem due to the passionate writing and story telling.
Just as Duncan, he didn’t go out and do these things just as he didn’t encourage others to. Instead both cleansed their pain by rapping words and using their unique creativity and skills. Horror authors do this, too as do many movies; why aren’t they getting attacked?
There is a difference in self expression, harassing and committing crimes.
Bottom line, regardless of what any rapper says, no one has to use it as a guideline for their life and artists shouldn’t be held responsible for the actions of others!
California has deemed freedom of speech to be a privilege, not a right.
Under this cruel law it appears it seems to me prosecutors have forgotten what self expression and the first amendment stand for; also forgotten is the difference speaking, threatening, harassing and actually committing a crime.
It’s clear to see Cali has confused the act of writing and creativity with the act of actually committing or inciting murder…which is absolutely asinine. This threat to all of us arises only because they want it to be a crime for artists to speak of or express their feelings or experiences when it comes to criminal acts.
Duncan has no record what-so-ever, so writing about what he has seen or what others go through has become his ‘crime’- if they can put him in prison (or even attempt to!) for that, why would they want to stop there?
This has nothing to do with Mr. Duncan being a criminal or engaging in criminal activity (look at his clean record). What it is about is censorship. Censorship and making the art of music and writing about crimes yet another ‘crime’. What’s worse is while rapists usually get off with a slap on the wrist if we are lucky, they want this crime to be one punishable by life in prison.
The rap artist, Brandon Duncan, is heading to trial now because the overseeing Judge decided his lyrics were in fact words that could possibly fall into this legal trap.
This may not be you yet, but it could easily be you next. You the writer, the blogger, the poet or musician. Please stand up with us against California’s insane attack on an innocent Black male and demand the crazy law and ‘charge’ of ‘conspiracy’ be dropped.
Reminds me of another song… Check out the similarities… Arrested in Shanghai
You can contact Deputy District Attorney Anthony Campagna and demand that he obey the Constitution of the United States at the following:
Hall of Justice
330 W. Broadway
San Diego, CA 92101
619-531-4040
FAX: 619-237-1351
publicaffairs@sdcda.org
Before I go, a quick history note;
When Tupac released 2pacalyse Now the government didn’t like what he had to say, even though he was not talking about anything more than issues that we the community need to remember, consider and take action upon. Trapped. Part Time Mutha. And one of my favorites, Violent, in which Tupac shares a fantasy of self defense against crooked and corrupt cops trying to frame him and his friend. I support self defense against cops, and so does the Declaration of Independence but that’s a post for later. Another song (probably the most popular song) on the album was Brenda’s Gotta Baby. If you haven’t heard it, you need to. This is what real rap is about :
Truth- A Right to Fight For... 