Seven years ago, middle of the day in Newport News, Virginia, and someone starts shooting. When local police arrived at the scene, they found two young victims. A twenty year-old was laying near death ...

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. Next month, the Supreme Court of New Jersey will hear arguments about whether rap ...

When Anthony Elonis began posting violent rap lyrics on Facebook in October of 2010, he probably never expected a visit from the FBI—or that a federal jury would later find him guilty on multiple ...

Prosecutors' use of rap lyrics at trial has come under scrutiny. A California judge vacated the murder convictions of two Black men on Monday after ruling that prosecutors "more likely than not" ...

On the afternoon of March 16th, 2017, aspiring rapper Anthony Murillo stood to hear the jury’s verdict – the culmination of a weeklong trial in which prosecutors argued that he had used a rap song to ...

Young Thug performs onstage at the 2022 SXSW Conference on March 17, 2022, in Austin, Tex. (Amy E. Price / Getty Images for SXSW) By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree ...

In a ruling that could have national implications, the New Jersey State Supreme Court unanimously agreed that Vonte Skinner's rap lyrics should not have been admitted at a murder trial, ruling that ...

The trial of Grammy Award-winning rapper Young Thug, real name Jeffery Lamar Williams, began on Monday in Atlanta, Ga. The trial is expected to take months and will be pivotal in shaping how the ...

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Decriminalizing Artistic Expression Act into law on Friday. The bill will limit the use of lyrics as evidence in legal proceedings. Advocates of the bill say using lyrics ...

Criminal cases around the country have seen rap lyrics used as evidence. Los Angeles attorney Alan Jackson and Georgetown law professor Paul Butler weigh in on the fine line between art and evidence.