Please join us for a special discussion panel event, titled “Rap On Trial”
Video links from our event are shown below:
Date:
January 22, 2014
Time:
5:30-7:00pm
Location:
University of California, Irvine campus
1517 Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway
Details:
This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided at a reception following the panel.
Approved for 1 hour of MCLE credits.
Please RSVP to our Graduate Coordinator for the Center, April Thomas, at psychlaw@uci.edu by January 20th.
Co-sponsored by the Newkirk Center for Science & Society
Event Description:
The Center for Psychology and Law is proud to host “Rap On Trial,” an exciting discussion panel event addressing the recent practice of using rap lyrics as evidence in criminal cases. Prosecutors have become adept at convincing judges and juries alike that rap lyrics are either autobiographical confessions of illegal behavior or evidence of a defendant’s knowledge, motive or identity with respect to the alleged crime. This movement to effectively criminalize rap music has significant implications for how we define creative expression and free speech. Please join us as we discuss the history of this practice and the practical implications of these issues.
This event will feature presentations by Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, Dr. Sohail Daulatzai, and Dr. Charis Kubrin.
-Dr. Charis Kubrin presenting “For Every Rhyme I Write, It’s 25 to Life”
This talk will discuss a disturbing trend that is occurring in court rooms across the nation, what Kubrin and Nelson call “rap on trial,” as evidenced by the courts allowing the admission of rap music lyrics as evidence in criminal trials. In this talk Dr. Kubrin will draw attention to the practice of using rap lyrics as evidence in criminal proceedings as well as explore its context, describe its elements and contours, and consider its broader significance. She will offer examples of recent cases in which rap music has been used as evidence in trials against amateur rappers, almost all of whom are young men of color, in order to illustrate the specific ways that prosecutors use the music, as well as to highlight the devastating effects it can have on defendants. She will also consider the elements of rap music that leave it vulnerable to judicial abuse, as well as the artistic, racial, and legal ramifications of using this particular genre of music to put people in jail.
-Dr. Sohail Daulatzai presenting “At Lady Justice, I Blaze Nine”
This talk will explore how with the emergence of mass incarceration and what Michelle Alexander has called “the new Jim Crow,” hip-hop culture arose phoenix-like from the ashes of the post-Civil Rights and post-Black Power repression. A scream against the silence imposed, hip-hop’s days were predictably numbered, but not before it bore witness to a new kind of politics, one that creatively challenged state power, subverted the power of the law, and critically probed America through the eyes of the wretched of the earth.
-Dean Erwin Chemerinsky presenting “My Freedom of Speech is Freedom or Death”
The lyrics of songs are speech and the First Amendment protects expression, even when it is highly offensive. Rap music, no matter how violent the imagery or how misogynistic the views expressed, is constitutionally protected speech. None of the exceptions to the First Amendment, such as for incitement or obscenity, apply or provide a basis for allowing the punishment of rap artists for their words and music.
Speaker Bios:
Charis E. Kubrin is Associate Professor of Criminology, Law and Society and (by courtesy) Sociology. Among other topics, Professor Kubrin’s research examines the intersection of music, culture and social identity, particularly as it applies to hip-hop and minority youth in disadvantaged communities. She has conducted a content analysis of over 400 songs on rap albums, resulting in a series of papers that examine themes such as respect, violence, nihilism, and the objectification of women in rap music. Her paper, “Gangstas, Thugs, and Hustlas: Identity and the Code of the Street in Rap Music,” is consistently ranked in the top 5 “most frequently downloaded papers” published in the journal Social Problems. In 2005, Professor Kubrin received the Ruth Shonle Cavan Young Scholar Award from the American Society of Criminology and the Morris Rosenberg Award for Recent Achievement from the District of Columbia Sociological Society.
Sohail Daulatzai is the co-editor (with Michael Eric Dyson) of Born to Use Mics, a literary remix of Nas’ landmark 1994 album Illmatic, and is also the author of Black Star, Crescent Moon: The Muslim International and Black Freedom beyond America, which looks at the history of solidarity between Black radicalism and the Muslim Third World. He has written liner for the 2012 release of the 20th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set of Rage Against the Machine’s self titled debut album, the liner notes for the DVD release of Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme and the centerpiece in the museum catalog Movement: Hip-Hop in L.A., 1980’s – Now. His writing has appeared in The Nation, Counterpunch, Al Jazeera, Souls, Black Routes to Islam, Amer-Asia, and Basketball Jones, amongst others. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Film and Media Studies and the Program in African American Studies at the University of California, Irvine. He is currently working on a graphic novel and is curating “Return of the Mecca,” an exhibit on the history of Islam and Muslims within hip-hop culture. More of his work can be found at openedveins.com.
Erwin Chemerinsky is the Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law, University of California, Irvine School of Law. Before assuming this position, was the Alston & Bird Professor of Law at Duke Law School from 2004-2008 and was a professor at the University of Southern California Law School from 1983-2004. The author of seven books and over 200 law review articles. Frequently argues appellate cases, including in the United States Supreme Court.
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