SALEM — Should music, specifically rap lyrics, be considered evidence in a court of law? This is a question jurors nationally and in the Salem Superior Court are grappling with. Unique evidence in the ...

If you meet McKinley Phipps now, he's a far cry from the 20-year-old, chart-climbing rapper known as Mac, signed to music mogul Master P's No Limit Records, whose 1998 album "Shell Shocked" reached No ...

As the high-profile criminal trial of rapper Young Thug began this week, Black rappers who have had their lyrics used against them by prosecutors as evidence of criminal activity have renewed calls to ...

Hip-hop, like any art form, is a means of creative expression. And while rap music is often semi-autobiographical, when Kanye West recorded in 2018, “I thought about killing you / Premeditated murder, ...

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law on Friday that limits the use of rap lyrics in criminal court cases in California. The law requires "a court, in a criminal proceeding ...

Prosecutors' use of rap lyrics at trial has come under scrutiny. A California judge vacated the murder convictions of two Black men on Monday after ruling that prosecutors "more likely than not" ...

The trial of Grammy Award-winning rapper Young Thug, real name Jeffery Lamar Williams, began on Monday in Atlanta, Ga. The trial is expected to take months and will be pivotal in shaping how the ...

Rapper Mac Phipps was convicted of manslaughter and served 21 years in prison. When McKinley “Mac” Phipps Jr. signed with No Limit Records in 1997, the up-and-coming rapper had big dreams. “When I ...

In what is positioned to address a growing issue for music artists, particularly in the hip-hop genre, a new bill has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressmen Hank Johnson ...

NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Democratic New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman about the RAP Act, which would bar the use of music lyrics as evidence in court proceedings. The Restoring Artists ...