Lyrics on trial: how US rappers have their music used against them in court - podcast

Rappers are increasingly finding their music used against them in criminal trials. But as Sam Levin reports, California is taking steps to limit the practice “Murder, murder, kill, kill … Pull the trigger, put a bullet in your head.” It was these lyrics that a US prosecutor laid before court as evidence in the murder trial against McKinley “Mac” Phipps Jr. The all-white jury would later go on to convict the rapper, a rising star of the music industry when he was arrested at 22. As Sam Levin tells Hannah Moore, it’s far from the only example of rap lyrics being used as evidence against hip-hop artists. In the case of Phipps, it was one of the parts of a case that led to a sentence of 30 years in jail, despite the fact that there was no physical evidence against him and overwhelming evidence that he was innocent. Continue reading...
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