According to Erik Nielson, a rap scholar at the University of Richmond, the use of lyrics as evidence has become “widespread.”
“It is pervasive, it is widespread,” Nielson said while speaking with Noisey. “Lyrics are being used all throughout the criminal justice process. They’re being used in indictment hearings, they’re being used in actual trials, they’re being used in sentencing hearings. We know that they’re being used in less formal ways, for example to compel a plea bargain.”
Atlanta, Georgia rapper Killer Mike is also featured in Noisey’s story. The Run The Jewels lyricist addressed the prejudice surrounding Hip Hop.
“The prejudice is there; hip-hop is just being used as a way to apply the prejudice. It is hip-hop today, it was jazz 80 years ago, it was rock and roll when Little Richard was around,” Killer Mike said. “The most dangerous thing is not the active participation in a racist system—by the judges or the prosecutors or the police, who are the front lines of making sure these policies are in place—but the very real and very scary thing is the apathy by the general American public that is the same racial makeup of the leaders of these groups.”