Are Rap Lyrics a Confession?
EricMesa
- One minute read - 209 wordsRap lyrics as a confession isn’t a new topic or question. I remember hearing about this a few years ago with someone who had rap lyrics on their Facebook page that was arguing it should be inadmissible in court. Just Googling “rap lyric confession” gave me these examples:
- The Controversial Use of Rap Lyrics as Evidence
- Song Lyric Confession leads to Murder Conviction
- Art or confession? NJ Supreme Court to rule on rap lyrics
and more. But today my wife was watching the latest episode of The Daily Show, which contained this clip:
In case that clip eventually goes away, Trevor Noah discusses this news story in which a bunch of rappers, including Jay-Z, are trying to get the law changed in New York so that rap lyrics are inadmissible in court. Frankly, I always thought it was BS that rappers could have it both ways - boast about crimes for street cred, but argue it was just art, not a confession. (Kind of like those assholes who pretend to be reporters covering the news on actual news channels until they get in trouble and then it’s all supposed to be parody or not taken seriously) But I immediately thought of this great Key and Peele sketch: