California Governor Gavin Newsom adds another hurdle for prosecutors trying artists in criminal cases.
As of Friday with the signing of AB 2799, prosecutors will have to prove in a pretrial hearing that rap lyrics are relevant to the prosecution’s case in order for them to be admissible.
“For too long, prosecutors in California have used rap lyrics as a convenient way to inject racial bias and confusion into the criminal justice process,” Dina LaPolt, entertainment attorney and co-founder of Songwriters of North America, said in a statement. “This legislation sets up important guardrails that will help courts hold prosecutors accountable and prevent them from criminalizing Black and Brown artistic expression. Thank you, Gov Newsom, for setting the standard. We hope Congress will pass similar legislation, as this is a nationwide problem.”
Proponents of the bill said it protects rap artists, who are mostly black and Latino.
“Their stage name might be Little Murder, but that doesn’t mean they’re a murderer,” California Assemblymember Reginald Jones-Sawyer said, according to Fox News. “We found that the lyrics that they were using in the court to prosecute someone, those weren’t even that person’s lyrics. It was written by someone else. The music was written by someone else, and they were just performing it.”
The bill’s signing comes as prosecutors utilized lyrics in their criminal street gang case against rappers Young Thug and Gunna.
Jeffrey Willams, aka Young Thug, and Sergio Kitchens, aka Gunna, were indicted, along with 28 members of the Young Stoner Life Records label on violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and for alleged participation in street gang activity.
More than 10 songs were quoted in the indictment, including words from Williams’ “Take it to Trial” where the Atlanta, Georgia native sings “for slimes you know I kill, trial, I done beat it twice, state, I’m undefeated like feds came and snatched me, I don’t know, no point in asking, I was on Bleveland. I up my stamina, take it to trial, get an appeal, take it to trial, yeah, you gon wack em… pop em like a cyst, Glock with the assist.”
Williams was arrested in 2016 for an outstanding warrant for failing to appear in court and was also arrested in 2017 on drug charges, including possession of meth, hydrocodone, and marijuana. Kitchens was arrested in 2018 for possession of marijuana, amphetamines, ecstasy, oxycodone pills and half a “Xanax bar.” Both were denied bail in the current case because the judge said prosecutors had adequately argued that witness intimidation was likely.
Supporters of the legislation said there is a difference between the artistic expression in a song and what someone does in reality.
“This is about justice. This is about making sure that the court system looks at that individual and not what people think about that individual,” said Jones-Sawyer.
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