Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Hugh McIntyre covers music, with a focus on the global charts. Hip-hop is bigger than ever, as it’s the most-consumed genre of ...

Alvin Jones takes pride in his “unseen VJ” persona that developed as a result of creating BET’s “Rap City.” He was recently honored at the BET Hip Hop Awards for his game-changing work for the network ...

The trial of Grammy Award-winning rapper Young Thug, real name Jeffery Lamar Williams, began on Monday in Atlanta, Ga. The trial is expected to take months and will be pivotal in shaping how the ...

Young Thug performs onstage at the 2022 SXSW Conference on March 17, 2022, in Austin, Tex. (Amy E. Price / Getty Images for SXSW) By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree ...

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 ...

Prosecutors' use of rap lyrics at trial has come under scrutiny. A California judge vacated the murder convictions of two Black men on Monday after ruling that prosecutors "more likely than not" ...

No one believes that country music legend Johnny Cash shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die. When Cash in 1968 released “Folsom Prison Blues,” a ballad about shooting and killing a man for no ...

He denied a motion filed by Young Thug's attorney against the use of lyrics. The judge presiding over the trial of rapper Young Thug, who is facing gang-related charges in Atlanta, Georgia, ruled ...

Can a criminal defendant's own rap lyrics serve as evidence against him in court? It appears they can be, and the music industry is crying foul. As reported in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, ...

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Decriminalizing Artistic Expression Act into law on Friday. The bill will limit the use of lyrics as evidence in legal proceedings. Advocates of the bill say using lyrics ...

Ms. Lee is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and a 2021-22 Knight-Wallace reporting fellow. March 30, 2022 Tommy Munsdwell Canady was in middle school when he wrote his first rap ...