Whitey Ford
05-18-2022, 01:33 AM
NY senate passes 'Rap Music on Trial' bill preventing song lyrics from being used as evidence in criminal cases
https://i.ibb.co/tpr0L5h/WBtzOWb.jpg
On Monday, the New York State Senate passed the “Rap Music on Trial” legislation, a bill which prevents song lyrics from being used as evidence in criminal cases, creating protections for all artists and content creators, including rappers.
Artists like Jay-Z and Fat Joe along with academics like Michelle Alexander previously signed their names on a letter endorsing the legislation aimed at securing freedom of creative expression in New York, barring prosecutors from interpreting rap lyrics literally as evidence against defendants in courtrooms.
The bill is sponsored by Senator Brad Hoylman (D/WFP-Manhattan), Senator Jamaal Bailey (D-The Bronx) and Assemblymember Catalina Cruz (D-Queens) and was introduced in November with the intention of protecting all artists and content creators from the misuse of their work in legal battles.
Rap should not be treated differently from any other art form; yet in courtrooms across the country, artists have been unfairly targeted for simply exercising their right to creative expression,” said Senator Bailey. “Presuming a defendant’s guilt based solely on musical genre or creative expression is antithetical to our foundational rights and perpetuates the systemic racism that is embedded into the criminal justice system through discriminatory conflations of hip-hop and rap with criminality.”
University of Richmond Professor Erik Nielson found at least 28 cases of New York criminal prosecutors attempting to use rap lyrics as evidence since 2017. As recently as last week, the Fulton County District Attorney in Atlanta allowed prosecutors to submit rap music from Young Thug in an attempt to prove the rapper’s involvement in a criminal operation.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/ny-senate-passes-rap-music-on-trial-bill-preventing-song-lyrics-from-being-used-as-evidence-in-criminal-cases/ar-AASWVPs
https://i.ibb.co/tpr0L5h/WBtzOWb.jpg
On Monday, the New York State Senate passed the “Rap Music on Trial” legislation, a bill which prevents song lyrics from being used as evidence in criminal cases, creating protections for all artists and content creators, including rappers.
Artists like Jay-Z and Fat Joe along with academics like Michelle Alexander previously signed their names on a letter endorsing the legislation aimed at securing freedom of creative expression in New York, barring prosecutors from interpreting rap lyrics literally as evidence against defendants in courtrooms.
The bill is sponsored by Senator Brad Hoylman (D/WFP-Manhattan), Senator Jamaal Bailey (D-The Bronx) and Assemblymember Catalina Cruz (D-Queens) and was introduced in November with the intention of protecting all artists and content creators from the misuse of their work in legal battles.
Rap should not be treated differently from any other art form; yet in courtrooms across the country, artists have been unfairly targeted for simply exercising their right to creative expression,” said Senator Bailey. “Presuming a defendant’s guilt based solely on musical genre or creative expression is antithetical to our foundational rights and perpetuates the systemic racism that is embedded into the criminal justice system through discriminatory conflations of hip-hop and rap with criminality.”
University of Richmond Professor Erik Nielson found at least 28 cases of New York criminal prosecutors attempting to use rap lyrics as evidence since 2017. As recently as last week, the Fulton County District Attorney in Atlanta allowed prosecutors to submit rap music from Young Thug in an attempt to prove the rapper’s involvement in a criminal operation.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/ny-senate-passes-rap-music-on-trial-bill-preventing-song-lyrics-from-being-used-as-evidence-in-criminal-cases/ar-AASWVPs