Photo: George Douglas Peterson via SoundCloud
Eighteen-year-old Michael Schmitt of West Caldwell, New Jersey is facing up to 10 years in prison, reports Buzzfeed, after posting a controversial rap on his SoundCloud profile, illschmitt✖︎ ✖︎, alluding to violence toward his classmates at James Caldwell High School.
The ridiculously long-titled song, “u lil sluts @ jchs i love u all even tho yall hurt me and i forgive u. i would never hurt u,” has been removed since its February 24 posting, following a cascade of events over lyrics such as, “You can suck my dick,” “You’re gonna get cracked on the head like an egg, bitch” and “Pull my gun, kill your fuckin’ head/Now you’re dead, go to sleep.”
Tipped off by a fellow student after Schmitt pushed the song on his Twitter and Snapchat handles, said student’s mother contacted school administrators about a possible shooting threat, at which point the JCHS’ campus was put on lockdown and a SWAT team was called in to extradite Schmitt from school that day, ultimately charging the teen with creating a “false public alarm.”
While Schmitt was arrested without incident, he was placed in jail for a spell and is now on house arrest awaiting a potential grand jury trail for the “false public alarm” charge, which if convicted, could send him to prison for ten years.
This is hardly the first time lyrics have been brought to the courtroom. From Ludacris to Facebook-posting metal fans, if something hits the internet or not, if it’s put to song, the judge and jury may see it.
In Schmitt’s case, however, there’s a whole other nerve being struck with school shootings, Schmitt uploading his song ten days after the deaths at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Schoolin Parkland, Florida.
And though the Buzzfeed feature is painting Schmitt’s story with at least a stroke or two of sympathy, Schmitt claiming he was “painted” as a school shooter, doesn’t own a gun and is just a nerdy, white hip-hop fan in an otherwise conservative town, if you want to represent yourself as a sane young American these days kidadult don’t post a picture of yourself on your Soundcloud profile aiming a handgun at the lens and smiling.