The Restoring Artistic Protection Act (RAP Act), a bill presented last July with the goal of protecting artists from their song lyrics being wrongfully used against them in criminal and civil proceedings, has been re-introduced to Congress. Hank Johnson and Jamaal Bowman, two Democratic congressmen, are responsible for the re-introduction of the bill. At a press conference, which was streamed live by the Recording Academy, joined by representatives of the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC), the Recording Academy, the Black Music Collective, SAG-AFTRA, and other advocates of the First Amendment, the congressmen made a public demand for the restoration of Artists’ free speech rights.
According to Pitchfork, the bill aims to add a presumption to the Federal Rules of Evidence, one that would restrict the validity of evidence of an artist’s artistic and creative expression against said artist in a court of law. The group discovered that, since 2020, prosecutors have used song lyrics as evidence in over 500 criminal cases against the artists who wrote and performed them.
One of the most prominent examples of an artist’s lyrics being used as evidence against them is the prosecution of Young Thug (pictured above), Gunna, and the Young Stoner Life (YSL) crew on RICO charges. Prosecutors used his song lyrics to present YSL as a criminal organization, and Gunna accepted an Alford plea and was forced to give a statement declaring YSL a gang.
The co-founder and chair of BMAC Willie “Prophet” Stiggers pointed to numerous lower-profile cases which required this new legislation. In 1991, Derek Foster was convicted using a rap verse found in a notebook with no direct relationship to the charges. Jonair Tyreece Moore’s prosecutors showed over 20 minutes of rap videos to “show his knowledge of drug distribution and his motive for engaging in it.”
A similar bill was passed in California in 2022.
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