- Governmental censorship of art or a necessary step to rehabilitate a felon?
Governmental attempts to limit what artists and musicians can express are nothing new. Many totalitarian systems have banned art forms those in power don’t like.
That said, it’s not like the U.S. government hasn’t tried to stop some types of art. For instance, remember how Dee Snider of Twister Sister was summoned to a Senate hearing in 1985 in the middle of the Satanic Panic?
Yeah, that ended embarrassingly for the feds. But that’s a story for another time.
Instead, we’re talking today about the latest case of government vs. musician. The artist in question is rapper B.G., best known for his 1999 hit single “Bling Bling.”
A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. government must approve all of the rap artist’s future songs. If the songs are deemed to be “inconsistent” with B.G.’s goals of criminal rehabilitation, they will not be allowed to be published.
Opponents claim the ruling limits B.G.’s freedom of speech. Let’s take a look at the rapper’s history and why the courts say he needs government supervision.
Street Life
Granted, B.G’s life hasn’t exactly been easy and the man does have a criminal history. The rapper was born Christopher Dorsey in 1980 to a poor family in Uptown New Orleans.
His father died during an attempted robbery when B.G. was just 12. By the next year, he was hanging out with drug dealers, selling crack, and rapping.
At the age of 14, he got together with another young rapper by the moniker Baby D (who would later become famous as Lil Wayne). The two signed to Cash Money Records as a duo called The B.G.’z.
It took a few years, but B.G. eventually found success, both in the rap group Hot Boy$ and as a solo artist. He’s best known for his 1999 single “Bling Bling” off his platinum-selling album Chopper City in the Ghetto.
However, in 2009, B.G. was arrested during a routine traffic stop when the police found three guns in his vehicle. The rapper didn’t legally own any of them, and two of the weapons were reported stolen.
During the 2010 trial, it was found that B.G. and the passengers in the vehicle had conspired to mislead prosecutors by lying about who actually owned the guns. Fast-forward to 2012, and the rapper was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison and three years of federal supervision upon his release.
In the Wrong Crowd
On September 5, 2023, B.G. walked out of the prison, having served 11 years of his 14-year sentence. However, he still had that federal supervision period to deal with.
And that’s what’s behind his current legal woes. According to the law, people under federal supervision must not associate “unnecessarily” with people who have prior felony convictions, promote crime, or otherwise engage in behaviors that are “inconsistent with the goals of rehabilitation.”
Well, if you’ve ever listened to a gangsta rap song, you might start seeing some problems here.
In March 2024, B.G. was arrested after performing at a concert in Las Vegas with rapper Boosie and releasing a song with Gucci Mane. Both rappers have felony convictions, after all.
However, the courts determined B.G. had received all appropriate permissions from his supervisors for both recording music and appearing at the concert. So, he was released.
You Kind of Can but You Can’t
B.G. then promptly returned to court to defend his right to say what he wanted in his music. The prosecutors asked a federal judge to ban B.G. from “promoting and glorifying future gun violence/murder” in his music.
They also argued the rapper shouldn’t say anything in his songs or concerts that painted people cooperating with the police in a negative light. According to the prosecutors, such lyrics are — as it says in the law — “inconsistent with the goals of rehabilitation.
B.G.’s lawyers, however, argued that such a blanket ban would be an unconstitutional restriction on the musician’s freedom of speech. In the end, Judge Susie Morgan sided with B.G.
Kind of.
Judge Morgan didn’t impose a full ban on B.G. saying naughty things in his music, as she agreed it could be unconstitutional. However, she also agreed that promoting criminal activity might go against the rapper’s aim to be in the law’s good books again.
So, as a compromise, Judge Morgan ruled the U.S. government must give a thumbs-up to anything B.G. wants to say in his music. Because that’s totally not the same as just telling him not to say anything the government might not like, right?
Oh, and B.G. will continue to have to ask “please, may I?” if he wants to work with, perform, or collaborate with any rappers with previous felony convictions.
So, if you’re a fan of late ‘90s rap who’s looking forward to a Hot Boy$ reunion, that decision is now up to a federal officer of some kind. Sorry, but we wouldn’t hold our breath.