Insanity Knows No Bounds: Censoring A Rap Song

The origins of Rap, it’s rhyming, alliterating and tongue-twisting music, grew from protests of inner-city frustration over 40 years ago. From racial tensions to a failed criminal justice system, wars and corrupt politicians, it’s among the nation’s most popular genres. Even SiriusXM subscription radio devotes more than a dozen separate channels to Rap and Hip-Hop. Overseas, I’ve personally heard French Rap, German, Italian, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, and I will assume every language on Earth can be rapped to some degree.

Just weeks ago, December 19th, 2023, a San Francisco restaurateur and rapper named Andy “Chino” Yang, released a song and video with an unusual theme: A criticism of our mayor, London Breed.  And it’s pretty good.

and

RAPPER reprimanded for his video.

Here’s an excerpt from Chino Yang’s rap, “San Francisco Our Home” , that criticizes mayor London Breed, and he was forced to make an “apology”.
An artist getting threatened by mayor supporter? WTF. pic.twitter.com/ubS7sDU5Hh

— Richie Greenberg (@greenbergnation) December 28, 2023

This should hardly be controversial though, and perhaps not even significantly noticeable. After all, across generations and decades there have been so many lyrical criticisms of elected leaders: The pop/punk band Green Day makes a living with slams of U.S. Presidents and Congress. South African apartheid was an easy target to sing about. In a city like San Francisco, we have a truly rich anti-establishment, anti-war, anti-“the Man” culture. What happened?

Yang’s song, “San Francisco, Our Home,” has crossed a line, apparently. Not with most of us city residents and business owners, mind you, but with fans of Mayor London Breed and the supporters of her re-election. They are upset. They are livid; seething, they called a press conference this morning to denounce Chino Yang and his song, going as far as demanding it be taken down. Thing is, Chino Yang is in the spotlight, not for inflammatory falsehoods, but for simply telling the truth.

He owns a restaurant that’s been hit by burglars numerous times. He’s frustrated by lack of decency and respect of our property, the anti-Asian sentiment by a segment of our residents, and much of the crime spike does indeed fall on Mayor Breed’s lap. The buck stops with her, she’s to blame. Her failures to adequately fund our police department, and now a reversal, with a budget so insanely high, she’s resorted to demanding budget cuts across departments and agencies. Although Chesa Boudin’s removal as DA did of course help matters, a downsized SFPD and a police commission which just wants to hamstring and prosecute cops is really not helping the situation.

Yang says in his song, for example, “Tweakers keep messing with me … the city has no law and order … crooked politicians… phony-ass liberals…Mayor Breed is a clown.. we’re done watching our city turn into a Zombieland, throw our middle fingers up to the Mayor”, and more. Simple, and relatable. The video of Yang’s rap is captioned with the words in English and translated to Chinese characters as well.

The Reverend Amos Brown takes exception, and boy is he outraged. At the 11:00am “press conference” he called this morning to denounce and flay Yang’s rap, he insinuated Yang’s perception of the mayor is incorrect, that basically he’s lying.  And thereby Yang disrespected our mayor. And for this, he paraded several Black community members to the stage in his own church (the easiest venue to arrange a parade of denouncing speeches of course), to heap praise on Mayor Breed and to diss the rapper.

Rev Brown is the 82 year-old pastor of the Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, a staunch supporter of the mayor, and a former member on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He is also a paid member of the San Francisco Reparations Plan committee. I recently participated in a point-counter point discussion with him on local CBS affiliate KPIX. He’s also president of the local SF NAACP chapter and is a member of the California Reparations Task Force. He’s connected but his views outdated, and certainly a bit departed from the voice he fought with during civil rights protests. He was arrested with Martin Luther King Jr. back in a 1961 lunch counter sit-in in Atlanta. Rev. Brown should know, better than anyone, about free speech and constitutional protections.

Mayor London Breed is acknowledged to be in trouble politically. Polls over the last two years confirm her unpopularity and she’s expected to face a very tough battle for re-election next November. This asymmetrical response to Yang’s rap is particularly startling. Yang’s words are not highly controversial. they are quite simple a d direct to the point. And they are Yang’s feelings on the subject. Yet Rev. Brown and Breed supporters demand the video be removed. The U.S. Constitution protects Yang for his feelings and his words and is his personal expression of frustration with city hall. He’s an artist, and Breed’s supporters have ignited a flame of outrage of the public against her.

Yesterday, Chino Yang posted an “apology” on his Instagram account. He’s “seen the light” and yet, the underlying tone of his apology seems he’s coerced into making the statement.  He alluded to safety for is family and business. An apology under duress is not believable, I don’t accept it, nor should we ever demand one. I hope law enforcement becomes involved if this is true.

We are waiting for further remarks on this issue to come in the near future, and Yang has nothing to apologize for. But for now, what Yang is being criticized for is just bizarre, it’s embarrassing for the Mayor and Rev. Brown, it’s truly absurd, and its unconstitutional.

MY RANT! What happened with mayor @LondonBreed , Rev Amos Brown and attempts to censor a local rap artist critical of the mayor and her failed policies? I don’t accept the rapper’s apology, he owes no apology, no one should apologize for free thoughts, especially under duress: pic.twitter.com/yGVIZmE5VX

— Richie Greenberg (@greenbergnation) December 28, 2023