New York senators to introduce new bill to limit use of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trials
nme.comRolling Stone, Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan) and Jamaal Bailey (D-The Bronx) are proposing a bill called ‘Rap Music On Trial’.The purpose of this bill is to set a new high bar compelling prosecutors to show “clear and convincing evidence” that a defendant’s rap song, video, or other “creative expression” is “literal, rather than figurative or fictional”.Hoylman argued that nobody thinks Johnny Cash actually “shot a man in Reno just to watch him die”, as depicted in the lyrics of ‘Folsom Prison Blues’, or that David Byrne is a real “psycho killer”, but that rappers have repeatedly had their lyrics used against them in criminal cases.He said this practice is “chilling to artistic expression” and “reveals a bias in some instances that denigrates.
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