Hip Hop's birthplace, New York, is staging a different kind of battle involving rap lyrics -- while some prosecutors want to pin crimes on artists through their lyrics, but rappers and lawmakers are taking immediate action.
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00:00So, basically, you know, it's the Rap on Trial bill.
00:05It's the bill that is trying to put some guidelines in place so that rap lyrics or lyrics in general,
00:11but specifically rap, because we know we're being targeted from all angles, just to make
00:16sure that you're not able to prosecute solely based on using lyrics without having any further
00:22evidence and not having a test of sorts just to make sure that you pass these four parts
00:28of this procedure, just to make sure that, you know, things can be interpreted a certain
00:33way.
00:34Obviously, hip hop writing and writing in general is creative at some time.
00:38So we just want to make sure that we're not being targeted or prosecuted wrongly, just
00:42solely based on what's happening in our music.
00:45This is nothing.
00:46This is not a joke and matter.
00:47This is, I take this, I take this very serious because I look at this like, if we don't nip
00:52this in the butt now, years down the line, we're going to have a serious, serious problem.
00:58And you know, it's an injustice.
01:00We've been targeted as minorities and our livelihood is being attacked.
01:06So to be honest with you, I take this serious.
01:09I don't even want to sit up here and play around with this shit like it's a joke.
01:13You know what I mean?
01:14Because it's brothers that's fighting for their lives and they're being, they're not
01:17getting a fair day in court at all.
01:21When you come to the door, when you're using someone's lyrics, you know what I'm saying,
01:26against them in court, it's just, it's just a terrible injustice.
01:30Perfectly, Pap.
01:31As we speak right now, Young Thug's lyrics are being played in court.
01:35It hasn't been determined if he's actually talking about the crimes that he's being accused of.
01:40So I do want to add that within this bill, we're not saying that, you know, if someone
01:46is foolish enough to rap about a crime and then commit the crime that, you know, they
01:53didn't put themselves in a bad predicament and then whatever happens after that needs
01:57to happen.
01:58We're not saying that.
01:59We're saying that we don't want harmless lyrics, creativity.
02:03We don't want our craft, our livelihood to be under attack in the way where it's used
02:08against us.
02:09If someone is doing that, they need to be held accountable.
02:13We're just saying we got to protect hip hop, man.
02:15This is our way of life.
02:17And I'm tired of sitting around watching people bash and blame hip hop for something that
02:22existed in America before hip hop was even born.
02:25We just celebrated the 50th anniversary of hip hop.
02:28You tell me if the Al Capone era and the crime era is younger than hip hop.
02:35No.
02:36And this is bigger than this just particular issue, but you got to get involved at a local
02:40level.
02:41You got to know who your senators are, who your congresspeople are, who your assembly
02:47people are, who your alderman is, and get involved at a local level to make sure that
02:53the people that are in power are the people that are speaking for you and the people that
02:57understand you and the people that are aligned with, you know, your goals and the things
03:03that you see in the community that you want to change.
03:05I definitely want to shout out Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz, Senator Jamal Bailey, who we
03:11spent the day with, Senator Kevin Parker, Lieutenant Governor Delgado, everyone that
03:17we worked with, we walked with, we lobbied with, we met with up in Albany.
03:22They seem very understanding of the cause.
03:25I think that when Papa Nas spoke from a creative standpoint, as we are just reporters of what
03:31we see in our neighborhoods.
03:32Like I said, when I spoke at the Capitol, America has a problem with guns getting into
03:39the wrong hands and drugs getting into the wrong hands.
03:42I don't understand why anyone would try to even think about blaming hip-hop for that
03:49problem when that problem existed before hip-hop.
03:52I've been a part of hip-hop my entire life.
03:54I've been a big fan.
03:55I remember clearly when gangsta music, when gangsta raps first started, and when the Fat
04:02Boys were screaming, all you can eat, X-Klan was talking that positivity, and I can go
04:07on and on and on about all the entire landscape of hip-hop was all positive and fun.
04:14I've seen extreme levels of violence in the neighborhood I grew up in.
04:17So violence existed way before hip-hop.
04:20Crime existed way before hip-hop.
04:23I think instead of targeting rappers and worrying about our livelihood and trying to tear down
04:27our livelihood, why isn't anyone upset with Smith & Wesson, all these gun manufacturers?
04:33Don't you think people should be trying to figure out how are these guns getting into
04:36the wrong hands?
04:37Don't you think people should be trying to figure out how are drugs getting into our
04:44communities and our kids are overdosing?
04:47We don't control any shipments of weapons into this country.
04:51We don't control none of that.
04:53So our neighborhoods are actually a victim of illegal firearms and drugs.
05:02So we're fighting to come up out of that, and we use hip-hop as a way to get away from
05:07that and better our lives, and now you're telling us that hip-hop is the reason?
05:11I mean, anyone who wants to target hip-hop or boycott hip-hop, I think they're directing
05:17their energy in the wrong place by a long shot.