When James Broadnax was 19, he used a notebook to jot down rap lyrics, personal thoughts, and job leads. Years later, those same pages became the focal point of a capital murder trial that would send him to death row.
Prosecutors used selected verses—alleging references to gang activity and shootings—to persuade an almost entirely white jury that Broadnax, who is Black, deserved death rather than life imprisonment. His lawyers now argue this tactic weaponised racial bias to secure a lethal sentence.
Broadnax is not an isolated case. Research indicates that rap lyrics have featured in hundreds of criminal trials across 40 US states over the last half-century. While judges frequently exclude other forms of creative expression from evidence, rap is often treated as a literal diary. Experts argue this minimizes its artistic value while exploiting negative stereotypes.
“It denies rap the status of art, characterising it instead as autobiography,” says Erik Nielson, co-author of Rap on Trial. “It speaks to the assumption that young men of colour—the primary targets of this practice—lack the sophistication for metaphor or literary device.”
The strategy is a staple of racketeering and gang cases. If a defendant writes lyrics before a crime, prosecutors claim "motive"; if written after, they are framed as a "confession."
Broadnax was convicted for the 2008 shooting deaths of two men outside a Dallas music studio. After 18 years on death row, his execution is scheduled for April 30. In a pending appeal to the US Supreme Court, his attorneys contend the trial judge failed to account for racial prejudice, allowing a "racially charged narrative" to dictate the verdict.
The disparity in how genres are treated is stark. A 2022 review of court records since 1950 found only four instances where non-rap lyrics were used as evidence; three of those cases were dismissed and one conviction was overturned. Conversely, Nielson identified roughly 700 instances involving rap.
Rapper Kemba, featured in the documentary As We Speak: Rap Music on Trial, notes that the tactic is effective because of innate prejudices. "Many people don't see Black music as artistic expression," he told The Associated Press. "In court, there is already an assumption of guilt."
While high-profile artists like Young Thug have seen their lyrics scrutinised in racketeering cases, the practice predominantly affects young men of colour with limited legal resources.
The monitoring of Black expression is not new, but it intensified as hip-hop became more critical of power structures. Today, the bias remains measurable. A University of Nevada study found that when the same lyrics were presented as rap, country, or metal, respondents were overwhelmingly more likely to believe the rap verses were literal, autobiographical accounts of the author’s life.
Associated Press