Jay-Z and Meek Mill Lead the Charge to Urge New York Lawmakers to Limit Using Rap Lyrics Against Artists in Criminal Cases
Jay-Z and Meek Mill Lead the Charge to Urge New York Lawmakers to Limit Using Rap Lyrics Against Artists in Criminal Cases
Jay-Z and Meek Mill, possibly the biggest proponents of Hip-Hop against archaic criminal laws that penalize mostly people of color, are among other artists and celebrities who are urging New York lawmakers to help pass an important bill. Senate Bill S7527 proposes to enact a law that would limit the admissibility of someone’s music as evidence against them in a criminal trial.
According to People, there is current legislation in New York that lawmakers are trying to pass that would limit prosecutors using rap lyrics against defendants as evidence in criminal cases. The bill, which is in the Senate, is listed under the proposal for Senate Bill S7527, which is also being referred to as “Rap Music on Trial.”
A letter has been obtained by People from Jay-Z’s Team Roc attorney Alex Spiro and University of Richmond Professor Erik Nielson that shows entertainers who have signed on with Jay-Z and Meek Mill. Killer Mike, Big Sean, Kelly Rowland, Robin Thicke, Fat Joe and Yo Gotti are some of the artists who added their signature to the letter sent to lawmakers that states that “reform is urgently needed.”
“Rather than acknowledge rap music as a form of artistic expression, police and prosecutors argue that the lyrics should be interpreted literally — in the words of one prosecutor, as ‘autobiographical journals’ — even though the genre is rooted in a long tradition of storytelling that privileges figurative language, is steeped in hyperbole, and employs all of the same poetic devices we find in more traditional works of poetry.
“This tactic effectively denies rap music the status of art and, in the process, gives prosecutors a dangerous advantage in the courtroom. By presenting rap lyrics as rhymed confessions of illegal behavior, they are often able to obtain convictions even when other evidence is lacking.”
The legislation was written and supported by Senator Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan), Senator Jamaal Bailey (D-The Bronx), and Assembly member Catalina Cruz (D-Queens). It was first proposed in November and on Tuesday, it passed through the New York Senate Codes committee according to Rolling Stone, which is for a full vote on the Senate floor.
Senator Bailey has stated that the new bill would direct prosecutors to present a “strong, factual nexus between the art and the facts of the case,” instead of the artist’s music to create a theory.
Jay-Z and Meek Mill Lead the Charge to Urge New York Lawmakers to Limit Using Rap Lyrics Against Artists in Criminal Cases
