- Senator Hoylman: “It’s time to end the egregious bias against certain genres of music, like rap, and protect the First Amendment rights of all artists.”
NEW YORK—Today, Senator Brad Hoylman (D/WFP-Manhattan) and Senator Jamaal Bailey (D-The Bronx) introduced “Rap Music on Trial” legislation (S.7527) to enhance the free speech protections of New Yorkers by banning the use of art created by a defendant as evidence against them in a courtroom. The legislation will protect all artists and content creators, including rappers from having their lyrics wielded against them by prosecutors.
In September 2019 in a New York District Court, the lyrics of rap music artist Daniel Hernandez (better known as Tekashi69 or 6ix9ine) were introduced in court and used to compel Hernandez into becoming a government witness to avoid harsher sentencing. As recently as this January, a Maryland Appeals Court decided to allow prosecutors to submit rap music recorded by Lawrence Montague as evidence against him in a trial, despite a dissenting judge stating that the “rap lyrics had little to no probative value.”
The legislation from Senator Hoylman and Bailey (attached) would guarantee freedom of creative expression in New York by prohibiting prosecutors from using creative expression as criminal evidence against a person without clear and convincing proof that there is a literal, factual nexus between the creative expression and the facts of the case.
Senator Hoylman said: “Art is creative...
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