Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about the business and law of music. Two men were convicted in federal court on Tuesday in Brooklyn of murdering Jason ...

READ ALOUD in court, the words sounded like a confession: “Fuck the judge…this that mob life…cookin’ white brick.” Not long ago the defendant, Jeffery Williams, was rapping these lines on stage. Now ...

As Young Thug’s trial enters its third week, much of the controversy surrounding his case is the judge’s ruling that his song lyrics can be admitted by prosecutors as evidence in the case on a ...

A state appellate court has reversed a San Bernardino gang member’s murder conviction stemming from a 2014 drive-by shooting, ruling that a rap video he appeared in was prejudicial and should not have ...

The closest the U.S. Supreme Court has come to assessing whether rap lyrics can be used in prosecutions was in a case where it looked at whether they were a “true threat” that made someone believe ...