A Georgia teenager’s rap bars have landed him behind real bars after a football scuffle had even bigger consequences. Cortez Lyles, 18, is an athlete at Heritage High School in Conyers, Ga. who is facing serious charges in connection to a diss track against another football player.
The beef between Lyles and the other student, Benjamin Jett, began back in November when the two players got into a fight during on the field, according to WSB-TV. After the teens got into it, Jett was charged with battery. “The other guy got a couple of licks in, and my son came home with, and my son came home with a knot on top of his forehead,” Lyles’ father, Nachez Lyles, told Fox 5 News.
Despite the tension between the athletes dying down over the months, things took an interesting turn when Lyles decided he still had more to say. This led to the 18-year-old recording and releasing a diss track aimed at Jett, according to Fox 5.
“Listen, it’s not worth it,” Nachez reportedly told his son about starting another physical fight with the student. “You’re going to get yourself in trouble, and you don’t want to go the fighting route. We’ll deal with this.”
So, Lyles took his frustrations to the recording booth. But while Hip-Hop lovers know diss tracks are a common way for two parties to beef, Lyles’ song stirred up more trouble than he could’ve imagined. The lyrics of the song read:
Imma beat his a**
Drop a diss
and then I’ll take his b***h
Get a body bag or save his a**
‘cause I ain’t sparing s**t
I’m a scorpion
After Lyles dropped the song on Instagram, word eventually got around to the teammate’s mother, who took matters into her own hands. On Feb. 27, 2025, the high school was notified that a parent wanted to make a report about the song, WSB-TV reported. This led to Lyles being arrested on the school’s campus and later charged with terroristic threats/acts, according to the Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office.
Lyles’ parents say the song’s lyrics were taken out of context and should have never been taken seriously. “What do y’all want him to do? Come back to school and fight?” Lyles’s mother, Shandela McKnight asked. “We don’t teach our kids that.”
The 18-year-old’s father agreed noting that “the same thing with the [rappers] Kendrick Lamar and Drake situation.” He continued saying, “The complete consensus was, ‘Oh, Kendrick bodied Drake’ so, for that to be mentioned in a song and translated into something literal is egregious.”
Now, Lyles’ parents say they want to sit down with Jett’s parents to get the charges dropped, according to the Independent. Lyles is a senior at Heritage High School and hopes to join the U.S. Air Force after graduation.