Jay-Z and Meek Mill are attempting to forge a new law to protect rappers against New York prosecutors using their lyrics as evidence.
The amendment was envisaged by Democrat senators Brad Hoylman and Jamaal Bailey and assembly member Catalina Cruz. They say it could limit a defendant’s music and dampen their “creative expression” if there is the threat of it being shown to a jury in criminal trials later down the line.
Rather than relying on lyrics, they want prosecutors to deliver “clear and convincing evidence” which proves their creation is “literal, rather than figurative or fictional”.
Interestingly, they also noted how nobody questioned the fictional nature of Johnny Cash singing about how he’d “shot a man in Reno just to watch him die” or Talking Heads’ David Byrne boasting about being a “psycho killer”.
Jay-Z’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, told Rolling Stone, “This is an issue that’s important to [Jay-Z, aka Sean Carter] and all the other artists that have come together to try to bring about this change. This is a long time coming. Mr. Carter is from New York, and if he can lend his name and his weight, that’s what he wants to do.”
The late Drakeo the Ruler was once imprisoned because of the lyrics in his 2016 song ‘Flex Freestyle’, and he spent three years inside after being charged with murder.
Investigators ruled that while Caldwell didn’t fire the shot, the incident occurred due to his rivalry with rapper RJ which they said ‘Flex Freestyle’ proved.
