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‘It has become a sort of silver bullet’: why are rap lyrics being put on trial?

In compelling documentary As We Speak, a controversial legal practice that uses rap lyrics to secure convictions is explored

It had been a year and a half since gunfire erupted outside a club where he was slated to perform in Slidell, Louisiana, resulting in the death of 19-year-old Barron Victor Jr. Phipps, then 22, maintained his innocence, and the case against him was weak – there was no gun linking him to the crime, several witnesses recanted their testimony and another person confessed to pulling the trigger. You don’t have to look far to find popular lyrics about murder from white musicians: “Mama, I just killed a man / Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger, now he’s dead,” Freddie Mercury sings in Bohemian Rhapsody, footage of which is included in the film. There’s Johnny Cash (“I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die”), The Chicks’ summarily disposed of abusive husband in Goodbye Earl, Taylor Swift’s No Body, No Crime, in which the narrator kills her friend’s cheating spouse.

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