California becomes the first state to limit the use of rap lyrics in court
Over 500 times Hip Hop lyrics have been used as evidence against artists in the courtroom during indictments or convictions.
Video Transcript
CHESSIE THACHER: So I think that rappers should be afraid, yes.
JAMAAL BOWMAN: Over 500 times, hip hop lyrics have been introduced as part of indictments and/or convictions.
CHESSIE THACHER: And they're judging the art, not the artist.
Governor Newsom just signed a bill to ban the use of rap lyrics at trial unless certain conditions are met. But in criminal proceedings across the country, you see rap lyrics being treated differently. Prosecutors keep admitting them to show evidence of guilt-- like, the literal words that the rap artist is using as if they were confessions of some sort.
ERIK NIELSON: This is a racial issue with First Amendment implications. We know that no other fictional form, musical or otherwise, is targeted this way.
CHESSIE THACHER: It doesn't take too much time to look across the country and see, like, what's going on in Atlanta, in New York, in California. There were a number of different defendants.
FANI WILLIS: If you decide to admit your crimes over a beat, I'm going to use it.
One of the lyrics used in this indictment, just one of the lyrics is, me and my crew striking in all black, send me the drop, we'll kick in the house. If we steal a car, we're going to take off the tag. Well, they're kicking in doors, committing home invasions, and now I'm using those lyrics that they're admitting to doing that. I'm going to continue to do that.
ERIK NIELSON: I was alarmed for those two reasons-- the centrality of their lyrics and also the fact that prosecutors, not just in Atlanta, but elsewhere, do seem more emboldened and willing to go after more well-known artists.
JAMAAL BOWMAN: It shouldn't be lyrics then evidence. It should be evidence, evidence, evidence, and then possibly lyrics on the back end. So we feel rap is being targeted. And we feel rap is being targeted because most rappers are Black men, or Latino men, or men from low income backgrounds. And that's completely unacceptable.
- Now, a new bill proposed in Congress aims to protect artists' creative expression from being used as criminal evidence.
JAMAAL BOWMAN: So the bill is in its infancy stages in Congress. We just introduced it right before the August recess. We're still slow in the process of getting co-sponsors. But we'll start to see that pick up rapidly when we return on November 14.
And this is the limiting of rap lyrics being used, not the complete exclusion. But what we have seen is rap lyrics being used as the only evidence in connection with a crime. And that is completely unacceptable.
ERIK NIELSON: The popular narrative about rap and hip hop generally is that it promotes and perpetuates violence. But the story of hip hop provides a very different narrative. Rap was their way out, right?
This was one of the few opportunities they felt they had for upward social mobility. And so in my experience, communities have benefited far more from hip hop than they've been harmed by it.
