Two New York senators are moving to ban prosecutors from using rap lyrics as evidence to protect rappers‘ creative expression.
Sen. Bran Hoylman and Sen. Jamaal Bailey of New York introduced the Rap Music on Trial bill to the Senate on Wednesday, Nov. 17.
If the bill passes, it will amend state criminal procedure law to restrict prosecutors from using artists’ “creative or artistic expression” against them unless they show “clear and convincing evidence” that a defendant’s rap song or video, is “literal, rather than figurative or fictional.”
“The right to free speech is enshrined in our federal and state constitutions because it is through this right that we can preserve all of our other fundamental rights,” Bailey said Wednesday in a press statement.
“The admission of art as criminal evidence only serves to erode this fundamental right, and the use of rap and hip-hop lyrics, in particular, is emblematic of the systemic racism that permeates our criminal justice system.”
Hoylman commented that no one believes Johnny Cash “shot a man in Reno just to watch him die” or that David Byrne is a “psycho killer,” but rap artists continue to have their lyrics used against them when they are on trial.
He told Rolling Stone that this “reveals a bias in some instances that denigrates certain forms of expression, like rap music.”
