RAP Act returns to House floor
thefader.comLast July, Reps. Hank Johnson and Jamaal Bowman (Democratic congressmen from Georgia and New York, respectively) brought a bill to the House of Representatives that would severely limit prosecutors’ ability to use rap lyrics as evidence of criminality.
If passed, the Restoring Artist Protection (RAP) Act would seal similar statewide efforts such as New York’s Rap Music On Trial bill and California’s AB 2799 into federal law, adding (per a press release issued alongside the bill’s initial introduction to Congress) “a presumption to the Federal Rules of Evidence that would limit the admissibility of evidence of an artist’s creative or artistic expression against that artist in court.” The RAP Act stagnated after a referral to the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security in November.
But today (Thursday, April 27), Johnson and Bowman have reintroduced the bill, holding a press conference along with representatives of Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC), the Recording Academy, the Black Music Collective, SAG-AFTRA, and other First Amendment groups, Pitchfork reports.
In courts across America, rap lyrics are used more damningly than any art form. This long-running phenomenon returns to the national news cycle periodically and is currently experiencing renewed scrutiny due to the Georgia RICO indictment of high-profile Atlanta rappers Young Thug and Gunna along with 26 other alleged members of the Young Slime Life crew.
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