Musical Evidence

4.11.22

Maino Meets with the Mayor of NY

Something that has seemed to go back and forth in the eyes of the government, is whether or not lyrics from a musical track can be used against the artist, in a court of law. As gangs and violent crimes continue to increase, governors around the states are doing everything they believe they can to protect the city, which could include getting rid of some of our favorite music.

For a while, lyrics were not liable forms of evidence in court, but times are changing. Just last year, the state of Maryland passed a law suggesting rap lyrics could be used as acceptable court evidence. As you can imagine, many were not pleased by this, and worried about where it may take music, or their favorite artists. In most cases, it is up to the state and their representatives of how much they can use music, to solidify accurate responses in court.

We have been hearing about this issue quite often, when it comes to the case of YNW Melly. Him and one of his associates remain suspects of the murder of their two best friends. Melly’s biggest song is titled Murder On My Mind, with lyrics and a video, quite literally, singing about committing acts of murder. Now, Melly is facing the death penalty and not only are the judges taking into account his lyrics, but they have also been approved to take photos of his tattoos and use them as evidence to suggest gang affiliation within his trial.

While this is taking place in Florida, the mayor of New York City has recently been under-fire from hip-hop by threatening the continuation of the drill scene of music. The Brooklyn drill scene has been making major waves in the music industry, from Pop Smoke’s blow up, to Fivio Foreign taking it over and just releasing his debut album, to B-Lovee who is currently on the come up in the scene. The city has recently lost a number of friends and neighbors to gun violence, and the mayor has taken notice.

After the arrest of twenty young males in Brooklyn, for a multitude of crimes happening over the past three years, the city has connected it to drill music. The mayor had suggested that he did not know exactly what drill music was, until asking his son for examples, to which he declared sitting down with Instagram and other social media platforms, to ensure that music videos highlighting guns, drugs, and violence, are no longer tolerated on their platform. He specifically called out that drill music should no longer continue, alluding the genre specifically to guns and violence.

While this is something that could certainly be done, and likely has been done in many areas, no everyone is aligned. Rapper Maino has since pulled up on the Mayor with Fivio Foreign, B-Lovee and many others, to have a chat about the real meaning behind drill music, in attempts to save their genre on the rise. In a video shared on Maino’s page, it seems like the Mayor was in alignment with Maino, and suggested he has something to roll out, with the hope to continue drill music, in a safe manner.

So, we must ask ourselves, should lyrics in music be able to be used against the artist in court? On one hand, we love our music, and our favorite artists. But on the other, the violent cases continue to increase, and more times than not, these artists are only speaking from their experiences. The same thing can be said for artists who have been developing a history of depressing, sometimes self-harming lyrics. We have many times lost artists to suicide, then go back and hear their cries for help in their music for so long prior to loosing them. It is a tough line between a place to vent and be yourself, and alerting nervous reactions.