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. I write about the business and law of music. Two men were convicted in federal court on Tuesday in Brooklyn of murdering Jason ...

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 ...

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 Restoring Artistic Protection ACT — or RAP Act — would place legal guidelines on when, and how, lyrics can be introduced to a jury as evidence. But is it enough? In 2019, the Maryland Court of ...

As district attorneys across the country have used rap lyrics to build criminal cases against artists with growing frequency since the early 2000s, state lawmakers are looking to implement a legal ...

The rapper's indictment in Georgia spotlighted the controversial practice. The indictment of rapper Young Thug on gang-related charges in May 2022 sparked a movement in the music industry against the ...

Musicians including Jay-Z, Kelly Rowland and Killer Mike are backing a bid by two US senators to ban the use of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trials. What is in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and ...

As the high-profile criminal trial of rapper Young Thug began this week, Black rappers who have had their lyrics used against them by prosecutors as evidence of criminal activity have renewed calls to ...

UPDATE (11/9): Young Stoner Life's X account posted a link to a petition to push for legislation at the federal and state level to prohibit prosecutors from using rap lyrics in criminal trials. "The ...