- If Johnny Cash were a Black hip-hop artist today,
he could be facing criminal charges for singing this:
♪ But I shot a man in Reno ♪
♪ just to watch him die ♪
Since the early 1990s, hip-hop artists have had their lyrics
used against them in courtrooms across the United States.
- Though this practice has been going on for decades,
high-profile cases like the indictment
of Atlanta rappers Young Thug and Gunna
on gang-related charges have brought
increased awareness and scrutiny.
But Young Thug and Gunna are just two
of the hundreds of hip-hop artists facing consequences
for artistic expression.
(upbeat hip hop music)
Since its inception in the 1970s
as a multicultural exchange between African American,
Caribbean, and Latine artists,
hip-hop has faced racist stereotypes.
One is that it promotes gang involvement and violence.
- Because of fear, fear that what started out
as music to inform has turned into music that incites.
- Another is that it's not true art.
- So beyond the subjectivity of me just not enjoying rap
all that much—
What I've said before is it's not music.
- And a third is that lyrics are autobiographical.
- Basically prosecutors are telling the judge and the jury,
'You should take this music,
these words to the music, literally.'
- I just think hip-hop and rap is targeted
because it's dominated by young Black males.
And that's unfortunate.
I hate to even think that, but it's reality.
- This is McKinley Phipps, who goes by Mac.
He was an up-and-coming New Orleans rapper
on the prominent record label No Limit
when he performed at a showcase in February of 2000
that changed the course of his life.
- It was past midnight when a fight broke out
on the dance floor. And I remember hearing
what sounded like a pop coming from my right.
- Mac says he then ran to look for his mom,
who'd been at the door, collecting tickets.
He ultimately found her waiting in his car,
along with other friends and family who were at the show.
They drove back to Mac's house,
rehashing what had just happened.
- The guy who has been house-sitting
my two younger brothers met me on the lawn,
he said, 'Slim, detectives had just called here,
and they need to question you about a shooting.'
So it was in that moment that I was made aware
that someone was actually shot.
- From that moment on,
Mac says law enforcement was convinced he was the shooter.
They pursued him as their sole suspect,
even though there was no murder weapon
or other physical evidence,
and witness testimony supported Mac's story.
Another man who was at the event made a full-on confession.
Nothing changed their minds.
- I was convenient.
Here I was, a rap artist who had some notoriety,
and this was a chance for this parish
who is known for being tough on crime
to spread their nefarious message.
- Instead of presenting any physical evidence, at trial,
prosecutors misrepresented lyrics
from two of Mac's songs, which they spliced together,
to convince the jury that the rapper,
a well-respected 22-year-old with no criminal record,
was a man capable of cold-blooded murder.
- They kept pushing it, like trying to shove it down
the jury's throat and use it as a reference of my character.
And I think that was probably the single most prejudicial
thing that he did.
I believe that that turned many of the jurors in his favor.
(dramatic music)
- So how is it legal for an artist's lyrics
to be used as evidence against them—
especially when in so many cases,
those lyrics don't directly tie the person to a crime?
There are two ways that prosecutors
typically introduce lyrics as evidence.
One is by arguing that the lyrics provide evidence
of a true threat or an actual crime.
So, for instance, if someone wrote,
'I shot John Smith three times on Main Street,'
and a man named John Smith is found dead
with three gunshot wounds on Main Street,
the lyrics could potentially be admissible as evidence.
The other, more common way is to use
what's known as character evidence,
which speaks to a defendant's inclination
toward bad conduct.
Generally, character evidence isn't admissible
because it has the potential to cause the jury to be biased.
But there are a few exceptions
that allow character evidence to be admitted,
including motive, intent, knowledge of criminal activity,
and M.O., among others.
- The same strategy used against Young Thug and Gunna
was used against Mac.
And it worked.
Mac ended up sentenced to 30 years in prison.
In 2021, the governor of Louisiana granted him clemency—
after Mac had served 21 years for a crime he insists
he didn't commit.
- [announcer] Mac is home!
(crowd cheering)
- For some people, they have an agenda
to keep Black men in their place.
In their place means, you know,
it's something that dates all the way back,
all the way back to a time where, you know,
there was actually slaves, you know?
And, 'You have freedom now,
but don't get too out of place.'
You know, 'You're free, but—'
And so that's what I think,
that all of this is just a reflection of that.
- The racism Mac describes isn't just a matter of opinion.
Experts who have studied instances of rap artists' lyrics
being used against them as evidence in criminal cases
have discovered that the practice plays into a clear bias
likely to be found in potential juries.
- By prosecutors playing to juries preconceived notions
about rap music, they also tap into race.
- For instance, a 1996 experimental study
presented participants with a set of violent lyrics.
When told they were rap lyrics,
respondents found them to be more offensive and dangerous
than when the lyrics were characterized as folk or country—
even though the words were exactly the same.
In 2018, researchers replicated and expanded this study,
and found the same results.
All the evidence suggests that racial bias is at work here.
Prosecutors time and again take the safe bet
that the average juror doesn't understand
hip-hop conventions, associates rap with gangs,
and will interpret lyrics literally.
But for those who understand hip-hop,
it's obvious this thinking ignores the reality
of what the genre really is.
- Hip-hop, you know, a lot of it is metaphors,
similes and a lot of things.
It's representational. It's, it is not real.
It's not, you know—it's fictional.
- Still, Mac says he has a hard time believing
that people don't know how to separate artists
from their art.
- Y'all watch movies. Y'all know that stuff is not real.
Let's be honest.
- After all, no one really thinks Johnny Cash shot a man
in Reno just to watch him die.
(upbeat hip hop music)