In 2019, the Maryland Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of a Black man from Annapolis, Maryland, who appealed on the grounds that rap lyrics should never have been used against him as evidence. The conviction of 27-year-old Lawrence Montague was based on a single, shaky witness testimony and his own words, rapped through a jailhouse phone from where he was awaiting trial. His friend, recording through the other end of the line, interjected to dissuade Montague from having him post the short verse to social media. “I’m gucci. It’s a rap. Fuck they can do about a rap?” he responded.

Prejudice against hip-hop in criminal law is nothing new, but the use of rap lyrics in court has skyrocketed. Some cases, like the RICO charges brought against Young Thug and Gunna, are high profile enough to get substantial media coverage. But many more go unnoticed. It’s a quiet form of cultural discrimination that contributes to the United States’ damning racial disparity in mass incarceration. As of 2020, prosecutors had admitted lyrics as evidence in court cases over 500 times, using young Black men’s lyrics against them who had written or recorded sparsely.

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