Source: The Guardian
Earlier this month, the rapper Bobby Shmurda was arrested in New York, and prosecutors (lawyers) wanted the lyrics of his rap music to be introduced into evidence, although the courts just ruled that this won't be allowed. In these cases and others, the prosecution assumes (as many people do) that the rap music in question is sincere – a literal communication or direct reflection of biography. (This means that some people thing that rap artists are doing everything they talk about in their songs.) But the popular perception that rap songs are non-fictional, first-person, straightforward accountings of the actions of their mostly-black performers is not only an erasure of the artistry and complexity of the art form (with its roots in the erasure of black people’s artistry and intellectual complexity). It’s now also being used to actually criminalize artists. (This means that we should not assume that these artists are doing everything they talk about. When we believe this, we are making them look like criminals even though many of them are not. Rap is a musical art form – not sentences simply set to a backing track. Rappers, like poets and other musicians, choose words for their sound, as part of rhythmic schemes, to hit syllabic counts, for assonance, alliteration or consonance, and any of a number of other reasons beyond just dictionary definitions. Some also use those words with other layers of voice or looped tracks – even contradictory ones or humorous ones. But rappers, like any other musical artist, are often playing characters, either in their music or their performances or both – deliberately blurring the lines between the first-person protagonists of their songs and their real identities. We don’t accord rap music, for the most part, the same respect – and that disrespect has a lot to do with who is usually up there performing it. But the First Amendment doesn’t play favorites, and neither should the courts. (The First Amendment is the right to free speech) Comments are closed.
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