As We Speak: Rap Music on Trial

Can rap lyrics be used as evidence in court?

Nationwide, rap lyrics are playing

an increasingly prominent role in criminal cases.

Artists say that current law violates

their First Amendment right to freedom

of artistic expression.

Rappers Killer Mike, Chance the Rapper,

and Meek Mill asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in.

These trials affect rap artists.

And, typically, there's a racist element.

- This is all fiction. - It's like seeing an actor.

Gangsta rap is what sells.

Rap is an expression to reflect Black life in America.

Rapper Young Thug, out of Atlanta, his case

now sparking the national debate among lawyers...

And if you decide to admit your crimes over a beat,

I'm going to use it.

One second, yo.

Bun B, what's good?

- How you doing, man? - Focused.

Just in the studio working on some new shit.

Don't get yourself into something

that you don't really understand,

you know what I'm saying?

The way I see it, I don't really have a choice.

We have to be careful

how we conduct ourselves, to not give these motherfuckers

no ammunition because they already

make so many assumptions.

Yeah, I hear what you saying.

Don't help your enemies destroy you.

That's the best advice I could say.

All right, OG.

Appreciate you looking out.

Peace.

I'm ready.

Roll the tape.

I was born in the Bronx, New York,

the South Bronx,

Hunts Point, to be exact.

I knew I wanted to rap when I was nine because my older

brother was rapping.

I just started doing it, too. And I fell in love with it.

And I never stopped.

I met a guy.

He invited me to this class that he does at this community

center at the Point.

He would come in with a newspaper

and say, pick an article.

Write about it in 45 minutes.

What that did was got me into the habit of...

And that is the World Trade Center--

Analyzing what was going on in the real world...

and being able to make it into art.

I was saying things that I didn't mean...

That I had no experience in.

But the punch lines were crazy.

And so people was like, oh, this guy, he got potential.

As I got older, rap became

a big part of who I am.

And the Kendrick thing happened.

Make some noise for Kemba, man.

Remember that motherfuckin' name, Kemba.

People that come from communities...

like I do...

they don't see many options, you know?

Rap is one of the most attainable things to them,

to us.

"The role of the artist is exactly the same

"as the role of the lover.

"If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things

you don't see."

James Baldwin.

Writing lyrics is just like me saying,

how do I want you to feel right now?

In most music, but especially in rap music,

you get people talking about their experiences.

You get people trying to come out

of those difficult places they grow up in

by telling the world what's happening there.

And it's been like that since the beginning of rap.

I would love to hear people's experiences of what it's like

to have that twisted against them,

with the stakes being as high as the loss of your freedom.

You know, music has been the thing I could hold on to

when everything was out of control.

And I feel like...

I feel an obligation to it, too.

Are we really in danger?

If so, I got to keep things off the grid.

I think I know just the thing.

Then I'm gonna grease up my fingertips then, man.

Hi.

That's the 2-way.

Ooh, you got a 2-way.

Can I get this one?

You want this?

Yeah, that's the one.

Boss, I just come back from the time of Nazareth

to find this thing.

This is a 2-way.

You sure this is what you want, my brother?

Yes, sir.

No social media, no Instagram, no Facebook--

Can't call your mama. Can't call your girlfriend.

$39.99.

My respect.

Looking after us--

Cool.

All right, I'm under the radar.

I got to talk to some other artists,

see what to make of this whole "rap on trial" thing.

Way before the trial of Young Thug making headlines,

the city of Atlanta carved a place in hip-hop

that was unique.

At a time when the East Coast and West Coast dominated

the airwaves, two 20-year-olds from Georgia

who went by the name OutKast,

said what a lot of people below the Mason-Dixon Line

was thinking.

And I got a feeling, even today, the South

got something to say.

That's all I got to say.

Not many artists have been as outspoken about protecting

our rights as Killer Mike, whose moms was once a hustler

and his pops a policeman.

Mike, my guy. - Bro. What up, man?

- Great to see you. - Man, bless you.

Yes, sir, yes, sir.

How do you feel about that name

now in the context of the criminalization

of rap music and lyrics?

I love my name because I earned it.

I didn't seek to be Killer Mike.

It was bestowed upon me after a battle.

I wouldn't have gave myself that name because it's

damn near crazy for a Black man to call

himself Killer something. - I feel that.

I just knew that it was important for me

that I express myself through art.

And I went to school during the Reagan era and the explosion

of the crack epidemic.

Rap validated that I wasn't insane.

As a kid, I'm seeing things that people

aren't acknowledging.

You know, Nancy Reagan with that "just say no" shit,

like, get the fuck out of here.

I know that my neighbor, who used to have a great job,

should not be standing on a corner this year.

So this is beyond "just say no."

This is an epidemic of sorts.

And rap is the only thing that validated that.

When Ice said, 6:00 in the morning, police at my door,

fresh Adidas squeak across the bathroom floor,

out the back windows where I made my escape,

didn't even have the chance to grab my old-school tape.

When I heard that right now, I still

get chills because that's actually

the life that I started to see

Black teenage boys leading.

And no one was acknowledging that except for rappers.

Can lyrics like that ever be understood in the courtroom?

They're not going to say that the art

is simply a representation of the imagination

and the thought.

They're going to say, it's you.

You are a killer, Mike.

And we're going to lock your ass up.

It's a shame that we live in a country

where a white woman who killed her husband

can write an article called "How to Kill Your Husband."

And that article is not allowed to be used.

And the prosecutor had to find another way to convict her.

But I could randomly say some stupid shit in a song.

And some prosecutor can clumsily, with no rhythm,

say that shit to a judge as though he knows what