Jay-Z, Meek Mill and more push for law that would stop New York prosecutors using rap lyrics as evidence
nme.comJay-Z, Meek Mill, Big Sean and more have united to support a proposed New York state law that would limit prosecutors’ ability to use defendants’ rap lyrics as evidence of alleged crimes.As Rolling Stone reports, the rap giants have added their names to a letter calling on lawmakers to pass Senate Bill S7527 – which was first revealed in November and which passed through the Senate Codes committee earlier this week – into state law.
Others who have signed on to the letter include Fat Joe, Kelly Rowland and Killer Mike.The bill, brought forward by Democrat senators Brad Hoylman and Jamaal Bailey and assembly member Catalina Cruz, would limit a defendant’s music or other “creative expression” being shown to a jury in criminal trials, requiring prosecutors to provide “clear and convincing evidence” that that expression is “literal, rather than figurative or fictional”.Highlighting the disparity between rap lyrics being used as evidence with other forms of expression, Hoylman provides two examples – no one, he says, believes Johnny Cash “shot a man in Reno just to watch him die“, nor that David Byrne is a “psycho killer“.“This is an issue that’s important to [Jay-Z, aka Sean Carter] and all the other artists that have come together to try to bring about this change.
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