Comment
“What’s getting really unnerving is the amount of time it appears both police and prosecutors are spending over rap lyrics and videos on social media rather than using that time to go and gather more convincing, more conventional forms of evidence.”
Professor Erik Nielson, Richmond University
Read press coverage and blogs as well as commentaries commissioned for this site on how police, prosecutors and the media engage with rap in legal cases and how these practices have been challenged.
Press
Press articles
- Concern over use of drill music in court
Catherine Baksi, The Times (2023) - It risks miscarriages of justice’: MPs oppose rap lyrics being used as evidence in UK trials
Aneesa Ahmed, The Guardian (2023) - ‘Art Not Evidence’, a new campaign aims to stop the use of rap music as evidence in criminal trials
Samantha Dulieu, The Justice Gap (2023) - Human rights group backs Manchester men who say racism led to murder convictions
David Conn, The Guardian (2023) - The Guardian view on rap and drill music: a song should not land the young in jail
Editorial, The Guardian (2023) - Behind bars: how rap lyrics are being used to convict Black British men
Will Pritchard, The Guardian (2023) - Police are taking down more UK drill and rap videos than ever – for artists, what is the cost?
Will Pritchard, DJ Magazine (2023) - What kind of society sends young men to jail and ruins lives because of the lyrics in a song?
Ciaran Thapar, The Guardian (2023) - As the nation mourns the Queen, we are grieving the preventable death of Chris Kaba
Franklyn Addo, The Guardian (2022) - The Manchester 10
Roxy Legane, Red Pepper (2022) - Fury in Manchester as black teenagers jailed as result of Telegram chat
Helen Pidd, The Guardian (2022) - Spitting innocence: the use and abuse of drill lyrics in court
Tara Joshi, Rolling Stone (2022) - YouTube is Working with Met Police to Take Down Rap and Drill Videos
Will Pritchard, Vice (2022) - Stars including Jay Z Call for an End to the Use of Rap Lyrics as Criminal Evidence
Ben Beaumont-Thomas, Guardian (2022) - CPS to Review Guidance on Using Drill Music as Evidence
Jeremy Ball and Caroline Lowbridge, BBC Online (2022) - ‘One Death, 11 Jailed Teenagers: Was a Moss Side murder trial racist?’
David Conn, The Observer (2021) - ‘Criminologists Slam “Misleading” Policy Exchange Report Linking Drill Music to Youth Violence’
Thomas Kingsley, The Independent (2021) - Coming to the Defence of Drill
Catherine Baksi, The Times (2021) - How Police Prosecute Drill Artists with their Own Music
Samir Jeraj, Huck Mag (2021) - Drill and Rap Music on Trial
Steve Swann, BBC Online (2021) - Misunderstanding of Drill Music Leading to Unfair Convictions, says JUSTICE
Catherine Baksi, The Law Society Gazette (2021) - JUSTICE Report Finds Misunderstanding Drill Music is Leading to Unfair Convictions
Maeve Keenan, Youth Justice Legal Centre (2021) - Drill Lyrics Are Being Used Against Young Black Men in Court
Kamila Rymajdo, Vice (2020) - Art not Crime. Artists not Criminals: Drill goes to Number One
Leila Gaskin, The Crucible (2021) - Prosecuting Rap: How a UK legal project is fighting the use of rap lyrics in court
Kamila Rymajdo, DJ Mag (2020) - Stop Criminalising Drill Rappers, say Legal Campaigners
Diane Taylor, The Guardian (2019) - Behind Bars: After years of the UK banning music, attempts to censor drill break alarming new ground
McQuaid, I., Dummy Mag (2019) - Treating drill rappers as terrorists is a colossal mistake
Ciaran Thapar, New Statesman (2018)
Blogs
Scholarly and legal blogs
- Drill music and epistemic injustice
Tareeq Jalloh (2023) - Joint Enterprise and the ‘Gang’ Narrative
Kids of Colour (2022) - Missing the Point: How Policy Exchange misunderstands knife crime in the capital
Lambros Fatsis, Jonathan Ilan, Habib Kadiri, Abenaa Owusu-Bempah, Eithne Quinn, Michael Shiner, and Peter Squires (2022) - Stop Blaming Drill for Making People Kill
Lambros Fatsis (2021) - Part of Art or Part of Life? Rap lyrics in criminal trials
Abenaa Owusu-Bempah (2020) - Prosecutors are increasingly – and misleadingly – using rap lyrics as evidence in court
Erik Nielson (2020) - ‘Does Drill Kill? Moral panics, race and music’
Lambros Fatsis (2020) - Lost in Translation? Rap music and racial bias in the courtroom
Eithne Quinn (2018) - ‘Making Music Videos is Not a Criminal Activity – no matter what genre’
Joy White (2018) - Taking the Rap
Eithne Quinn (2014)