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 ...

If you meet McKinley Phipps now, he's a far cry from the 20-year-old, chart-climbing rapper known as Mac, signed to music mogul Master P's No Limit Records, whose 1998 album "Shell Shocked" reached No ...

The bill targets a controversial practice used by prosecutors for decades. Top music industry leaders, including the Recording Academy, are backing legislation introduced in Congress on Wednesday that ...

The debut documentary by editor J.M. Harper ('Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy') focuses on the the U.S criminal justice system's reliance on hip-hop songs to provide evidence against defendants. By Jordan ...

As district attorneys across the country have used rap lyrics to build criminal cases against artists with growing frequency since the early 2000s, state lawmakers are looking to implement a legal ...

Young Thug's lyrics are used as alleged evidence in a RICO indictment. Young Thug is a burgeoning rapper known for pushing the envelope, both musically and as a fashion icon. He became an influential ...

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 ...

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 the high-profile criminal trial of rapper Young Thug began this week, Black rappers who have had their lyrics used against them by prosecutors as evidence of criminal activity have renewed calls to ...

NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Democratic New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman about the RAP Act, which would bar the use of music lyrics as evidence in court proceedings. The Restoring Artists ...