A notebook filled with rap lyrics, personal thoughts, and job leads, written by James Broadnax at age 19, became pivotal evidence in his capital murder trial. Prosecutors selectively presented lyrics they claimed referenced gang affiliation and shootings, successfully arguing for the death penalty over life imprisonment for Broadnax, who is Black. His legal team argues this tactic biased the predominantly white jury against him.
This controversial practice is not isolated to Broadnax or Texas. Researchers have documented rap lyrics being introduced as evidence in hundreds of court cases across more than 40 U.S. states over the past five decades. This stands in stark contrast to how judges often exclude other forms of creative expression, such as novels or poetry, from being used as evidence. Experts warn that treating rap lyrics as literal diary entries undermines their artistic value and exploits negative racial stereotypes to sway jurors.
Erik Nielson, co-author of Rap on Trial, said: “It denies rap music the status of art. It is characterized as autobiography. It really does speak to underlying assumptions that some people have about young men of color — and that’s almost exclusively who this practice targets — that they aren’t sophisticated enough to engage in various literary devices. That there isn’t metaphor here.”
Rap lyrics are commonly used in racketeering or gang-related cases. Prosecutors attempt to establish a defendant’s involvement in a crime by introducing lyrics as evidence, Nielson explained. If someone is charged with a shooting, prosecutors search for lyrics that mention a shooting. “If the lyrics were written before the alleged crime, the prosecutors will say this is evidence of motive,” Nielson said. “If they’re written afterward, they’re characterized as a straight-up confession.”
Broadnax and his cousin were charged with murder for the 2008 shooting deaths of two men outside a suburban Dallas music studio. After more than a decade on death row, he is scheduled to be executed on April 30. In their pending appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, his attorneys argue that the judge should have considered potential racial bias and instructed the jury that his lyrics should not be viewed as autobiographical. “The emphasis on the rap lyrics was a key element in this racially charged narrative,” Broadnax’s attorneys wrote. “Worse, the record in this case confirms that the jury delivered a death sentence based on the racial stereotypes invoked by the rap lyrics.”
Kemba, a rapper featured in the documentary As We Speak: Rap Music on Trial, told The Associated Press that introducing rap lyrics is particularly effective with juries due to innate prejudices and prosecutors’ desire for convictions. “There’s a lot of people that don’t see rap or Black music as artistic expression,” he said. “And when you’re in a court case, there’s already an assumption that you’ve done something (wrong).”
The defendants in these cases are “almost exclusively young men of color, often with very limited resources,” and many cannot afford a private attorney, Nielson added. However, some high-profile rappers have had their songs introduced in court, such as Young Thug, whose lyrics were used as evidence in his trial on gang and racketeering charges. He pleaded guilty and was released in 2024.
Nielson noted that the use of rap lyrics in court ramped up in the early 1990s, but the criminalization of hip-hop has been ongoing for all 50 years of the culture. Monitoring of Black artistic expression dates back to the antebellum South, he said, intensifying as rap music became more critical of power structures, like N.W.A.’s 1989 song “F--- the Police.”
In 2022, The New York Times’ Jaeah Lee searched for non-rap examples of lyrics used at trial from 1950 onward and found only four. Three cases were dismissed, and one conviction was overturned. In the same period, Nielson found roughly 700 examples of rap lyrics used in court cases, including lyrics that someone rapped but did not write.
Another study by University of Nevada assistant professor Adam Dunbar examined stereotypes of rap. Participants were presented with lyrics and told they were from rap, country, or metal music. When told the lyrics were rap, respondents overwhelmingly considered them autobiographical. “But if they’re given the same lyrics and told that those are country or heavy metal lyrics, they say, 'No, it’s just art,’” said J.M. Harper, director of As We Speak.
Some rappers have begun attesting to the fictional nature of their music. In 2021, before his death, Drakeo the Ruler released the song “Fictional” from behind bars because his lyrics were being treated as nonfiction. In 2023, 21 Savage described his raps as “fiction as hell.” Nielson said: “There’s no doubt in my mind that they are doing this for fear of prosecution.”
A number of A-list rappers, including Travis Scott, T.I., and Killer Mike, have filed briefs at the Supreme Court in support of Broadnax, cautioning against considering rap lyrics autobiographical. Prosecutors in the case said Texas law allows evidence relevant to a defendant’s reputation at sentencing and contend the court should not consider the argument against the lyrics because Broadnax failed to raise concerns in previous appeals. State courts have ruled against other appeals by Broadnax’s attorneys.
Rapper LL Cool J told the AP in 2024: “At the end of the day, the most important thing is not the prosecutors. The question is: Why is it even admissible?”
Lucius T. Outlaw III, a professor at Howard University School of Law who filed an amicus brief on behalf of Nielson and Killer Mike, said judges enforce rules of evidence specific to each state. One judge might view rap lyrics as relevant; another may disagree. One might worry about triggering “anti-rap, which is anti-Black, bias,” he said, “where another judge will say, ‘I don’t see that prejudice.’” Outlaw added: “Guidelines about what is relevant when it comes to artistic expression and what is overly prejudicial is so needed.”
Jeff Bellin, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School, said current rules instruct judges to exclude evidence if it has low probative value and a danger of creating bias. “The safeguard should be judges, but they are often not aware of the social issues, or the context, when it comes to rap lyrics,” he said. Bellin noted that legislating around the issue is difficult because lawmakers do not want to create rules that would exclude evidence truly relevant to any case.
In the past five years, at least 27 bills have been introduced federally and in a half-dozen states to limit the use of a defendant’s creative expressions, including rap lyrics, in criminal proceedings, according to an AP analysis using the bill-tracking software Plural. On April 9, Maryland became the third state to pass legislation, creating “guardrails and a test for judges to impose anytime prosecutors want to use artistic expression, not just rap,” Outlaw said, noting it requires a factual connection between the potential evidence and the charges. “It’s not the cure-all, but it’s a huge, important step,” he concluded.
