![]() The line was fictional nobody claims that RJ was ever tied up in the back of Drakeo’s car. At one point, for example, they cited a line from his song “ Flex Freestyle,” in which he raps, “I’m ridin’ round town with a Tommy gun and a Jag / And you can disregard the yelling, RJ tied up in the back.” So to bolster their case, prosecutors focused on Drakeo’s music. One of the district attorney’s own witnesses also said Drakeo didn’t know the shooting was going to happen. In fact, RJ has repeatedly said that he doesn’t believe he was ever targeted by Drakeo. RJ wasn’t even at the party, and there’s no evidence he and Drakeo ever had violent confrontations. Drakeo, they claimed, had ordered the shooter to kill a different person – a musical rival who raps as RJ. To recap Drakeo’s legal drama: Last year, he was charged and tried in connection with a shooting at a party that resulted in the death of a 24-year-old man named Davion Gregory.Īccording to prosecutors, the shooting was botched. And yet it’s an effective strategy precisely because it taps into stereotypes about rap music and the young men of color who are its primary creators. No other art form is exploited like this in court. In effect, they ask jurors to suspend the distinction between author and narrator, reality and fiction, and to read rap lyrics as literal confessions of guilt. They routinely ignore the fact that rap is a form of artistic expression – with stage names, an emphasis on figurative language and hyperbolic rhetoric – and instead present rap as autobiographical. ![]() In addition, my research with University of Georgia law professor Andrea Dennis has uncovered more than 500 instances in which prosecutors have used this strategy, a number we’re certain is just the tip of the iceberg.Īs an expert witness, my job is to correct the prosecutors’ characterizations of rap music. My best guess is that I’ve consulted on over 60 cases in which prosecutors have used rap lyrics or videos as evidence of guilt. ![]() This is work I’m called to do quite regularly. Now he’s on trial for his life, and prosecutors are planning to do what they’ve done to hundreds of other accused hip-hop artists: Use his own lyrics as evidence against him.īecause my research centers on African American literary and musical traditions – with a particular emphasis on hip-hop culture – I was asked by the defense to testify as an expert witness in Drakeo’s first trial. Hailed as one of the most original rappers to emerge from Los Angeles in a generation, he had garnered hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, tens of millions of views on YouTube and the attention of media outlets like SPIN, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times. Rapper Darrell Caldwell, better known to fans as Drakeo the Ruler, was on his way to stardom. ![]()
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