#FreeToomaj And Corrupt Journalism

Toomaj Salehi… and I think that this happened, in part... because of his name.

But first, who is Toomaj Salehi? Toomaj Salehi is an Iranian rapper… best known for his politically dissident hip hop music in the country of Iran, the country where Toomaj was recently incarcerated under the legal charge of, “corruption on Earth,” regarding his politically dissident music video's on Youtube. Nevertheless, and despite initially being sentenced to DEATH in October of 2022, in December of 2024 Toomaj was released from an Iranian prison after international outcry, including social media post's from the artist Sting and other celebrity's.

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But for those of you who may know, I also make hip hop music... having grown up myself in suburban Detroit and having lived in Brooklyn and what not... (BilliamsWorld.com). So this story really hit home for me. Furthermore, after initially studying Toomaj's story, I also realized that this story is really not as simple as, “oh the Iranian government is infringing upon Toomaj’s human rights," whereby, then after some careful thought, I realized that this story is actually more of a political “rig-a-ma-role” than one might notice at first glance. Or rather, I think that Toomaj is being used as international collateral at this point, in a bigger argument, perhaps over Toomaj’s music in the global hip hop scene.

And I think that today for a few reasons…

1) The initial judgment was the "death sentence" which instantly brought publicity to his case. But Toomaj’s videos on Youtube do fairly well, he has over 5m views as a musician… though, his rap style is overtly sensitive compared to NYC rappers and his upbringing, even in Iran, doesn’t rival a lot of the urban youth here in America. But was Iran promoting their artist on the global stage? Was this hype? This wouldn't be the first time in rap music that a ridiculous scandal was caused for nothing more than publicity...

2) His last name, “Salehi,” also brings about suspicion. Is this a political referendum on American hip hop culture? If so, then I 100% agree with the Iranian government. WTF is the deal with American mainstream rapper's selling drugs? And who the f*** allowed that s*** to begin with? Are we going to spread that drug culture through music… to Iran? Or was this a message... was this something bigger? Was this a real argument between world leaders?

3) His music itself, it’s fringe. He’s close to the mainstream level… but him and Pharoah wouldn’t even be top 10 in most American hip hop circles. Unless, of course, he were to be arrested by the Iranian federal government… or something. Was this again, publicity? How serious was this?

So after I initially got really upset, like, “who do Iran think they are?” I’d previously spoken out about how Iran appeared geologically quant and that a war with the country felt frivolous and financially pre-determined.

Yet, the Iranian government here, was acting in clear tyranny… arresting a musician? No, they wouldn't dare! This was in clear violation of the freedom of speech, where does America step in? And then, again, I realized my naïve flaws and I studied this equation some more. Was this a ploy for publicity? Was this a trap? Is this intentionally being done to start a war? Who profits from such a thing? Shortly thereafter, Toomaj’s sentence was lessened from the death penalty, though, he remains in prison… is this common? Why now? And where does America draw the line on political prisoner's? Where is the war on free speech? And who decides, the people of Iran or the government of Iran?

And ultimately, how much does America care? All question's that the Iranian government was aware might/would be asked today.

So then all of these questions started popping up. And I laugh even today, because how foolish it would be… to start a war on the grounds of free speech by incarcerating a rapper, particularly seeing as the urban youth of America could be so easily galvanized to fight against such a cause. Or rather, it felt like a blunder militarily. You’ve not only damned freedom of speech but you’ve created another Tupac? Woe is you Iran and mistaken in judgment if you think that US soldiers wouldn’t notice.

Regardless, was this intentionally stupid? And how intelligent are some of these foreign government's? I do Ai and I wonder this a lot… where I rank, compared to other intelligence agency’s around the world. And again, I’ve lobbied against a war with Iran on the grounds of natural arrogance several times in the past but why would their government incarcerate this artist? It still feels awkwardly senile and politically foolish and even now I’m trying to wrap my head around this, without jumping to conclusions.

And that’s when I realized, “wait a minute, they are a national intelligence agency, they might be smarter than I am.”

To which I then thought… “FREE TOOMAJ.”

And ya know how Trump always does the OPPOSITE DAY thing?

JAIL JEEZY.

And then I laughed hysterically. Quite honestly. Because then I thought… “no, no, I’m an idiot and you Muslim guy's are genius’ and we need to hang out.” Because I completely agree, ENCARCERATE JEEZY. Where the Iranian government had done, “the Trump thing,” with the puns and slick talk. And it still boggles my mind how mature that they all are. However, the public does NOT respect me nearly the same way as they respect Don and some of these people. And this is a conversation of another sort in world politics, where more or less Iran and these country’s seem to distaste America’s, “Mcdonalds economy,” but that’s another topic for another article.

Regardless, “FREE TOOMAJ,” then subtly became, “ENCARCERATE JEEZY,” and I still laugh. They even look subtly alike.

Where now we’re having a different talk, today. And who do you think that I’m siding with, in that light? Young Jeezy is a notorious drug dealer from Atlanta who is wildly succesful in the African American nightclub scene.

But here’s the kicker. So the Iranian government knows that I’ve lobbied personally against, again, a seemingly pre-destined US war with Iran over the global oil reserves in that region. We’ve discussed this war for the past 40 years and it hasn’t happened yet, but Israel and the US have basically outlined Iran as an enemy since 1960. Regardless; these types of political “kurfluffles” add a lot of intrigue to the equation though, because it shows that some of this is actually more complex and yet, at the same time more medieval, than the public often realizes. Let me continue.

So, I often rap, “politically,” so to speak, myself. In fact, I have a couple of lyrics like, “the most controversial line // homelessness is not a crime.” Things like that. I sprinkle in some politics into my music occasionally. I actually started CiviliansNews.com 1 year before I started making hip hop music… so it was actually another way for me to express myself politically from day 1, in the light of a Tupac Amaru Shakur. Regardless, Toomaj Salehi was probably inspired in this same way… and beyond that, the Iranian government seems fully aware of the implications of this type of politically charged music, the power of music itself and the social consequences of music which is geared towards this group or that group of people.

So, back to my point... which is that music can be a political tool of sorts and Toomaj and myself, love to use music in this way, particularly as I personally disagree with all sorts of stuff that the US government does on a daily basis, as Toomaj has also done in his dealing's with the Iranian officials.

But the metaphor… or the "not so funny joke," from the artist that is the Iranian government… is that, politics in music… is like tyranny to them. Or rather, "musical divisiveness is like tyranny to Congress." And let me be more specific.

We’re annoying their leader. The high Preist/President, a combination of the 2… in some of these country’s… is more insecure than in America. Even in Russia, Putin's place in society is less enshrined than in the US due to; scandals, credibility, lies in the media and tyrannical grass roots displays. And Russia is a developed country compared to 2/3rds of the world! So in country’s where a leader might not be any more civilized than the CEO of a Real Estate company in Novi, Michigan… you get insecurity in terms of; ARTISTS, CEO’S, ATHLETES, all sorts of people who may be socially infringing upon leadership in country's even as sophisticated as the UK! (*Manchester United is notorious for keeping athlete's out of the media.) Metaphorically speaking… this would be akin to annoying the public by arresting a musician for, “corruption,” as the musician had annoyed them by dividing their senate with his music.

Or rather, the Iranian government might view it as a situation wherein the musician is essentially trying to overthrow politician's… so they encarcerate him first. It’s the most childish, midievil game of politics humans have played and yet, it’s still a reality in 2025, in some regions of the world… where world leader's… nuclear nation's even, are insecure in their dealings.

But is this a problem of the American education system? British education system? Chinese education system? That some of our middle class, runs ahead of their government agent's in these third world country's? Or is it the foreign government's fault for falling behind? Who’s to say? Again, a world of populous Mcdonalds' wages and pizza delivery, might not be ideal either, albeit more “refined.” Who is being ethical and rational and who is being unethical, in this circumstance? Are we westernizing Iran? And is "westernization" itself, corruption?

And whatever your stance on domestic vs world economy’s… the metaphor is that the Iranian government is simply retaliating in a way that is akin to how Toomaj has pressured them. Whereby, artist's actually THREATEN government's in lesser developed nation's and they took the action of actually arresting this man, to display their affection for his cause. So, in doing this, however, they’ve now sent a message to America, “we don’t care about freedom of speech, we’ll galvanize the US troops in a war, the propaganda is meaningless to us in a modern war and you Americans should stop promoting drug culture through music. Want to fight?”

And that was an interesting message… from a country with a fairly elite military, quite honestly, a country which has been preparing for a seemingly eventual war with the US… as well. And I sat again, and I thought… "FREE TOOMAJ or ARREST JEEZY?" That's an awfully serious message to be cryptic...

Then... where do I stand and who do I agree with? As this is now seemingly more complex than the face value of it all. However, this is real politics, not Fox News. And beyond that, what ideal's are worth fighting for? Is freedom of speech not fighting for, and again this appeared to me as a political blunder.

I mean, I don’t know what you guys think but I know that Lieutanent Meek Mill has about 50k troops at his disposal that have nothing better to do than go to Iran for 40-50k US dollars. And subtly, maybe that’s the plan? I don’t know. Whereby, maybe this whole thing was over a population crisis concerning urban American youth… I don’t know... and would a population crisis in Brooklyn be best solved by a senseless war? Again, these are clever people. I’m not a genius, they are, remember that.

Long story long, I wasn’t sure who I agree'd with in a conflict. In fact, I tended to lean on the Iranian side, “lock up Jeezy, who are these American rap guy's to judge the Iranian government and sell drugs?” Which is another topic for another day, as well… as the CIA jokingly allows some of these hip hop artist's to pretend to be, "drug dealers," and, "world leaders,” sometimes, IE XI… Jay Z, a mocking interpretation of a foreign leader. But, in that political dynamic… where do I stand? I kind of agree with Iran.

I ran. I wrote. …

Navalny just wrote… and he’s no longer with us, today. Luckily, I do music and I own a software company, as well as complain to foreign leader's.

I also work a day job at a restaurant. I don’t just mail complaint's to my federal government like some. And I realized, that some of this is, “political table talk.” Or rather, something like corruption of journalism, where world leader's are manipulating the news to discuss their ideals, so I believe.

But take that concept 1 step further.

When the American news media discusses, “Russia”… is that because of Russia or is it because corporate America thinks that, “we are rushing technology or going too fast in engineering?”

Rushing...

Where now these topics have almost become CORPORATE CODE WORDS (global warming, war in RUSHA, China as a metaphor for overpopulation) for, “slow down,” “keep the status quo,” and, “don’t change our job's overnight.” Whereby; musician's, education system's, Ai company's like mine at ArtificialIntelligenceProject.com, technology, music... all of that threatens the current money market's and current corporate dynamic's, including retirement funds and stocks... all held together by the corporate media…

#EncarcerateJeezy or maybe I just talk, "too much."

-William Larsen, Founder, Civilians News