ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Two of hip-hop's biggest stars were in major legal trouble this month. Both face allegations that they are the centers of major criminal conspiracies, and prosecutors are using their lyrics as evidence. As NPR's Rodney Carmichael explains, industry leaders say that strategy is dangerous, both for current and aspiring musicians.
RODNEY CARMICHAEL, BYLINE: One of the best rap songs of 2024 probably won't make any year-end top 50 list. But it features two artists whose names have hogged the headlines for better and worse.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GHETTO")
YOUNG THUG AND LIL DURK: (Rapping) My soul in the ghetto, and I'll never settle 'cause I'm out the ghetto.
CARMICHAEL: The name of the song is "Ghetto," featuring Grammy-winning rappers, Young Tug and Lil Durk.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GHETTO")
YOUNG THUG AND LIL DURK: (Rapping) On Monday, I'm ghetto. Tuesday, I'm ghetto. Wednesday, I'm rich. And Thursday, I'm ghetto.
CARMICHAEL: They crossed metaphorical paths last month when one got arrested on federal RICO charges, and the other got released after entering a guilty plea in the longest criminal trial in Georgia history. Rap, long romanticized as a way out the ghetto, is landing some of its biggest stars in hotter water.
WALLO267: When I grew up, hip-hop didn't have a target on its back.
CARMICHAEL: That's Wallo267, a 20-year ex-felon turned hip-pop Tony Robbins. He's the motivational mouthpiece behind "Million Dollaz Worth Of Game," the podcast he cohosts. Those in the know have called him one of the highest-paid podcasters within the culture. But Wallo's also become something else on the low - the OG who ain't afraid to steer the young bulls straight. When Lil Durk appeared on "Million Dollaz Worth Of Game" two years ago, he brought his whole hood with him. But about an hour into the interview, Wallo got all-the-way real while telling Durk and his crew - through tears - that he wouldn't be the man he is today if he hadn't learned to forgive his own brother's killer.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "MILLION DOLLAZ WORTH OF GAME")
WALLO267: He died in nanny's arms when she opened the door. So I'm telling you that's some real [expletive] man. If I ain't let that [expletive] go, I won't be right here today.
Some of the things that they would talk about is - sometimes it's, like, you know, it could be incriminating because the music has changed it to, oh, no, I'm really about this. No, I'm really real.
CARMICHAEL: This idea that song lyrics can be incriminating evidence sits at the center of both of their cases.
KEVIN LILES: Our creativity cannot be our confession. Our imagination can't be our indictment.
CARMICHAEL: That's Kevin Liles, longtime hip-hop exec and cofounder of 300 Entertainment. Liles and other industry leaders have launched a campaign to protect Black art by getting laws on the books in every state that make it harder for prosecutors to build criminal cases using lyrics as evidence. Legislation curbing such usage has passed in California and Louisiana and introduced in several more states. But federal trials, like the one Lil Durk faces, won't fall under state jurisdiction.
And in a recent update to the rapper's federal indictment, prosecutors are treating his song lyrics as a confession. They allege that he makes direct references to a murder-for-hire that ended in a death in Beverly Hills in 2022. So could these RICO cases mean the death of drill rap? It's not out of the question, but changing the music won't make lasting change, Liles says.
LILES: If you want to change what they talk about, change the conditions that they live in. If you want to have thought leaders and not warriors, then give them the opportunity to use their mind, to use their creativity to actually do more.
CARMICHAEL: For NPR Music, I'm Rodney Carmichael.
(SOUNDBITE OF KENDRICK LAMAR SONG, "SING ABOUT ME, I'M DYING OF THIRST") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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