Rap lyrics can't be used against artist charged with killing Run-DMC's Jam Master Jay, judge rules
ABC News
The man accused of killing Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay can’t have his rap lyrics used against him at trial
New York -- The man accused of killing Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay can’t have his rap lyrics used against him at trial, a Brooklyn judge decided Tuesday in a ruling that doubled as a history-filled paean to hip-hop as “a platform for expression to many who had largely been voiceless.”
The ruling came in response to an attempt by federal prosecutors to introduce lyrics penned by Karl Jordan Jr. as evidence of his role in gunning down Jay, a pioneering artist whose birth name was Jason Mizell. His 2002 death remains one of rap’s most infamous slayings.
In her 14-page order, Brooklyn Federal Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall traced the evolution of hip-hop over five decades, referencing tracks from over a dozen artists before ultimately finding the lyrics inadmissible.
“From the genre’s nascence as an oral tradition, rap artists have played the part of storytellers, providing a lens into their lives and those in their communities,” Hall wrote.
Prosecutors had sought to introduce several lines written by Jordan that described first-person accounts of violence and drug dealing, including: “We aim for the head, no body shots, and we stick around just to see the body drop.”
