The racial bias of courts using rap lyrics to criminalize artists of color. California is the first state to prevent courts from criminalizing Black and Brown artistic expression, after passing ...

SALEM — Should music, specifically rap lyrics, be considered evidence in a court of law? This is a question jurors nationally and in the Salem Superior Court are grappling with. Unique evidence in the ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Hugh McIntyre covers music, with a focus on the global charts. Hip-hop is bigger than ever, as it’s the most-consumed genre of ...

"The portrayal of rap lyrics as literal expressions of criminal intent ignores the longstanding tradition of adopting personas, exaggeration, and hyperbole for artistic effect," writes the NJLJ Young ...

From Snoop to Thugger, prosecutors have put rap lyrics on trial. These cases show what happens when bars move from the booth to the courtroom. Rap has always carried testimony, but in courtrooms ...

Mural by Kenya D. Lawton of Jam Master Jay (Jason Mizell) Photo by Al Pereira/Getty Images/Michael Ochs Archives) Two men were convicted in federal court on Tuesday in Brooklyn of murdering Jason “Jam ...

Using rap lyrics as evidence is controversial, but an Atlanta judge says it's fair game in a looming criminal trial against one of hip hop's biggest stars. By Bill Donahue An Atlanta judge ruled ...

READ ALOUD in court, the words sounded like a confession: “Fuck the judge…this that mob life…cookin’ white brick.” Not long ago the defendant, Jeffery Williams, was rapping these lines on stage. Now ...

The ruling, which said a prosecution expert had merely "guessed" about what the lyrics meant, came amid a nationwide debate about rap in criminal cases. By Bill Donahue Brooklyn prosecutors shouldn’t ...

No one believes that country music legend Johnny Cash shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die. When Cash in 1968 released “Folsom Prison Blues,” a ballad about shooting and killing a man for no ...

Young Thug performs onstage at the 2022 SXSW Conference on March 17, 2022, in Austin, Tex. (Amy E. Price / Getty Images for SXSW) By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree ...