In what his attorney claims is the first case of someone being arrested for recording a song, West Coast gangsta-rapper C-BO (Shawn Thomas) was taken into police custody Tuesday for what law enforcement officials claim is a parole violation found in the lyrics of his recently released album, Til' My Casket Drops.

C-BO, who was convicted in 1993 for negligent discharge of a firearm during a fatal gang-related shooting, was arrested after police in Sacramento, Calif., claimed that the lyrics to new songs such as "Deadly Game" (RealAudio excerpt) -- which features the lines: "When they try to pull you over/ shoot 'em in the face ya'll" -- were a violation of probation conditions that forbade C-BO from promoting a gang lifestyle.

C-BO, 28, who is being held without bail in Elk Grove jail in Sacramento, was charged with breaking conditions of his parole, which forbade: promoting a gang lifestyle, criminal behavior and/or violence against law enforcement, according to C-BO's attorney, John Duree. Additionally, two lesser violations are an alleged travel restriction violation and an alleged failure to provide documents to parole officers.

"The condition on its face of promoting gang activity is one thing," Duree said, "but the interpretation by the parole authority that he can't sing his songs is something else."

Duree said Wednesday that the case involving the rapper, who released five albums prior to the recent LP, is believed to be the first time "anyone has ever been incarcerated and arrested for singing a song or recording one." Florida record-store owner Tommy Hammond was arrested in 1988 for selling copies of raunchy rap group 2 Live Crew's Move Something, but he was later acquitted. Former leader of punk agitators the Dead Kennedys, Jello Biafra, was arrested in 1986 on charges of distributing material harmful to minors that was linked to a sexually explicit poster by artist H.R. Giger that appeared in the Kennedys' album Frankenchrist; Biafra was later acquitted.

While on parole for the firearm charge, C-BO was arrested for marijuana possession in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1995, Duree said.

Nina Crowley of the Massachusetts Music Industry Coalition, a censorship-watchdog group, said that if the case against C-BO goes to trial, it could be a landmark First Amendment issue involving his rights to freedom of expression. "I'm not surprised it happened, considering the attitudes that prevail today," Crowley said of her reaction to the arrest.

"If a kid can be arrested in Texas for wearing a T-shirt that someone finds offensive, anything can happen," Crowley added, referring to a recent case in which 18-year-old John Schroeder was arrested for wearing a shock-rocker Marilyn Manson shirt with the words "I Am the God Of Fuck." -- Gil Kaufman [Wed., March 4, 1998, 1:30 p.m. PST]