Yet, somehow, prosecutors in Georgia claim to know precisely what they’re hearing in this song: evidence of criminality. Other lyrics from “Just How It Is” have been admitted as evidence in the state RICO case currently being tried in the rapper’s native Atlanta where Young Thug — born Jeffery Lamar Williams — has been incarcerated for nearly 700 days. In May of 2022, Young Thug and other artists and associates affiliated with his YSL record label were identified in a grand jury indictment as a “criminal street gang,” alleged of being involved in a coordinated pattern of unlawful activity, including individual charges of attempted robbery, aggravated assault with a weapon, and murder. Strangely, the indictment relied heavily on Young Thug’s lyrics, with the prosecution citing numerous lines from “Just How It Is,” along with lyrics from eight other songs, two credited to other YSL artists and six more featuring Young Thug.
What a sickening, nonsensical tactic. Is there any other way to describe such an abject failure to differentiate between artistic expression and criminal evidence, such a flagrant punishment of Black creative thought? Even more shameful is the fact that prosecutors are making this practice more common in criminal trials across the country, whether the rapper is a chart-topping superstar as famous as Young Thug or an aspiring unknown posting their music on YouTube. According to Andrea Dennis and Erik Nielson, authors of the book “Rap on Trial: Race, Lyrics, and Guilt in America,” there have been nearly 700 cases in the United States in which rap lyrics were used as evidence since the late 1980s, and while that number feels staggering, the two most important words to note here are “rap” and “lyrics.” Not crime novels. Not slasher movies. Not mafia screenplays. Even when pop singers confess to murder in song — think: Johnny Cash, Freddie Mercury, Bob Marley — we hear their lyrics as the fictional works they are. Why are rap lyrics any different? Maybe because rap is a Black art form. It’s predominantly made by young, Black artists. In America, sadly, that’s all it takes. Being Black means your imagination can be used against you in a court of law.
Of the hundreds of cases cited by Dennis and Nielson, very few have been as high-profile and protracted as the one Young Thug is currently experiencing. Following a jury selection process that lasted nearly 10 months, the trial in Fulton County Superior Court has since been riddled with messy delays, moving with a glacial slowness that is expected to generate steady headlines through the summer. But, as Dennis and Nielson write in their book, most cases in which rap lyrics are used as evidence take place far outside the national spotlight, and they tend to involve defendants who do not have the power of celebrity on their side. “Amateurs are presumed to be rapping about their real lives,” they write, “as if they have little artistic ability or aim.”
Unfortunately for these defendants, the baseline rap literacy of the average American juror appears to be woefully low. Defendants…
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