
Others have argued that rap lyrics are merely fictional scenarios that have nothing to do with real life, akin to Johnny Cash singing about having “shot a man in Reno just to watch him die. His case is one of more than three-dozen prosecutions in the past two years in which rap lyrics have played a major part.

The latest instance involved the 2007 murders of a pair of Newport News, Va., youths, Christopher Horton, 16, and Brian Dean, 20, a case that had grown cold until a detective came across a YouTube video of Antwain Steward, a local rapper, with the stage name Twain Gotti, performing a song called “Ride Out.”Īlthough the 22-year-old Steward denies any role in the killings, authorities believe the lyrics include a boast he was responsible, and charged him last July with the crimes. In other signs of gangsta rap’s continuing cultural impact, The New York Times published a story this morning about how rap lyrics are increasingly being used in court cases as evidence. I am presented with strong, muscular, tattooed men, who are singing about money, guns, and women, in video clips replete with images of aforesaid trifecta. Lies executive producer David Walpert admitted to reporters after a screening of the episode that he “was not totally aware” the iconic Beverly Hills location of the shooting was less than three miles from where Biggie was shot. Now I switch over to youtube, and watch some gangsta rap videos - perhaps, for example, Young Jeezy’s appearance on Smack DVD volume 9. PHOTOS: Justin Timberlake and Jay Z at the Rose Bowl

Several outraged viewers pointed out the similarities to the killings of both Shakur (which took place on a busy Las Vegas street) and Biggie (who was gunned down on Wilshire Boulevard outside the Petersen Automotive Museum following an afterparty for the Soul Train Music Awards).
