JACQUES: Your Miranda rights begin with, “You have the right to remain silent” but for
many rappers, that right is already lost.
ANCHOR: A San Diego prosecutor says we’re not just talking about a CD of anything,
of love songs, one of the lyrics is putting a gun to your head with no safety.
ANCHOR: The detective zeroed in on Steward’s rap lyrics.
ANCHOR: Facing a lifetime behind bars for cutting a rap album.
JACQUES: In 2010, Boosie Badazz was indicted for 1st degree murder and prosecutors built
a case against him using his rap lyrics.
ANCHOR: Prosecutors say specific Boosie lyrics equal intent, defense attorneys say it’s
just a rapper doing his job.’
JACQUES: Boosie benefitted from his fame and great representation and went on to be acquitted in 2012.
But many smaller artists aren’t so lucky.
JACQUES: For example, a judge doubled Dallas rapper YNB NyNizzle’s 6 year sentence for
distributing cocaine after citing lyrics from his song, “Tru Gizzle,” saying the lines
matched up with a separate crime that
NyNizzle was suspected of, but never charged with, for ambush robbery where a victim was shot.
Yet these bars, having nothing to do with his original drug case, still affected his prison time.
PROF. DENNIS: Most of these are just average, ordinary young black or Latino men.
JACQUES: That’s Andrea Dennis, a University of Georgia law professor and the author of
a 2007 study on the practice of rap lyrics in court cases.
In it she found that quote:
PROF: These are cases that may include charges of homicide, assault, drug distribution, threats
or intimidation.
JACQUES: Prosecutors can use lyrics to paint a picture of the defendant and play to jurors’ prejudices.
PROF: This notion that black men are aggressive and dangerous and hyper-masculine and,
in short, criminals, bad men.
JACQUES: In NyNizzle’s case, the judge told him that he was quote "bragging" about
killing someone even though it was just a rap lyric.
This, too, falls into a pattern of using racial stereotypes against rappers,
like in the Vonte Skinner case in 2008.
ANCHOR: Prosecutors read 13 pages of Skinner’s violent, graphic rap lyrics.
These were lyrics that had been written months and years before the shooting,
prosecutors read them to show Skinner’s alleged propensity for violence.
JACQUES: However, hip-hop often relies on bravado, storytelling and exaggeration,
making lyrical evidence questionable at best.
Take Rick Ross for example.
JACQUES: Rick Ross has never met the late Panamanian leader, Manuel Noriega,
saying in a 2006 interview, quote:
JACQUES: At times, but of course not in all cases,
hip-hop can be more like the WWE... than the UFC.
PROF: It is very much an industry expectation that the artist is at least trying to maintain
an appearance of keeping it real.
JACQUES: This disconnect is what causes us to look at the following lyrics differently.
JACQUES: Both J. Cole and the late Johnny Cash are telling stories about murder yet
Cole is probably more likely to have the lyrics used against him in court because hip-hop
doesn't get the same level of artistic license as other genres.
PROF: I think some people just take the position, they're just rhymed words over a beat.
ANCHOR: Three specific words are what prosecutors hope will link Torrence Hatch to the alleged
killing of Terry Boyd.
Those words include 187, murk and cake.
JACQUES: Even when the lyrics seemingly line up to the crime it’s not so clear cut.
For example, Rapper Tay-K awaits trial in Texas on two capital murder charges.
JACQUES: The judge cited his song, “The Race,” recorded and released while on the
run from these charges, as a partial reason for denying him bail and it may not stop there.
PROF: I wouldn't be surprised if the prosecutor tries to argue that this song is actually
an admission or confession to having engaged in particular conduct.
JACQUES: Prosecutors often use police officers to explain the lyrics to juries.
ANCHOR: Prosecutor Dana Cummings presented a Baton Rouge police detective who said the words
“187” and “murk” mean murder, and the word “cake” means money.
JACQUES: Andrea tells us this isn’t the right approach because cops can lack the necessary
context needed to adequately explain these lyrics.
PROF: They're just saying these are lyrical representations of true life.
INTERVIEWER: So if that song is just a story a made up story, why do you write a story
like that?
ANTWAIN: That’s my lane.
I’m in the lane of hardcore rap. That's just what it is.
JACQUES: Your Miranda rights end with, “Anything you say can and will be used against you”
and for rappers like the aforementioned Twain Gotti, Boosie, NyNizzle and many many others,
that couldn’t be truer.
I’m Jacques Morel with Genius News, bringing you the meaning and the knowledge behind the music.
Peace!