The ongoing war on rap lyrics continue as the problem now seeps into the courtroom. The question at hand is whether rap lyrics should be allowed as evidence against the artist in order to pin him to a crime. The hotly debated subject gives way to many opinions, but as it stands right now; courtrooms have used raps lyrics plenty of times as evidence. Is it moral? Is it right? What people fail to realize is that music is an expression of art and is open to interpretation. Therefore, my stance stays the same; given the violent mostly fictional nature of rap music, courts should not to use lyrics as evidence in a crime case.
Lyrics are always debated for their meaning, or what story the artist is trying to portray. The song hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix …show more content…
Whether you are White, Black, Asian, or Hispanic you have a culture that your family and everyone in your community abides by. So, when you think of rap music a few things come to mind: dominated by African Americans, violent crime related lyrics, and adult content not heard in other genres of music. Rap music is a ghetto culture derived from the inner cities of America. These are people who all they’ve known their whole lives has been poverty, crime, and drugs. So naturally they know it so well, they rap about it and put it in songs. For example: Danny Brown a rapper from Detroit talks about his life growing up in his impoverished community in his song 30. “Came a long way from extension cords in the window, borrow neighbors power just to plug up the Nintendo. Where the ovens never closed, and the stoves never off, every winters so cold, got me sleeping wearing scarves”. You see these people grew up in a horrible situation with no power or heat. On the other side of the spectrum is a courtroom judge; a white male dominated profession who is a part of a very different culture then the rappers culture. He has probably never had to deal with the kind of things your average rapper has. Which again will lead to a false interpretation of the lyrics. A rapper would find it perfectly fine to write about drug use and talking down to woman, but a judge would label the rapper as a danger to society and never give him the time of day all because of the culture the rapper was born
Lyrics are always debated for their meaning, or what story the artist is trying to portray. The song hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix …show more content…
Whether you are White, Black, Asian, or Hispanic you have a culture that your family and everyone in your community abides by. So, when you think of rap music a few things come to mind: dominated by African Americans, violent crime related lyrics, and adult content not heard in other genres of music. Rap music is a ghetto culture derived from the inner cities of America. These are people who all they’ve known their whole lives has been poverty, crime, and drugs. So naturally they know it so well, they rap about it and put it in songs. For example: Danny Brown a rapper from Detroit talks about his life growing up in his impoverished community in his song 30. “Came a long way from extension cords in the window, borrow neighbors power just to plug up the Nintendo. Where the ovens never closed, and the stoves never off, every winters so cold, got me sleeping wearing scarves”. You see these people grew up in a horrible situation with no power or heat. On the other side of the spectrum is a courtroom judge; a white male dominated profession who is a part of a very different culture then the rappers culture. He has probably never had to deal with the kind of things your average rapper has. Which again will lead to a false interpretation of the lyrics. A rapper would find it perfectly fine to write about drug use and talking down to woman, but a judge would label the rapper as a danger to society and never give him the time of day all because of the culture the rapper was born