Shaun Kent

These are not my personal thoughts, but they are my personal thoughts through my music, and I should be allowed to have artistic freedom when I'm singing.

Prosecutors, on the other hand, are saying that when you look at rap lyrics, these are usually first-person encounters of a person's narrative of their thoughts, and we should be able to utilize them in the prosecution of them.

And so what judges have to do, Anushka, is do a careful balance to make sure if they are going to allow the rap lyrics in, they are for a specific part of the case and not just poetic freedom.

Where this gets a little deeper is if an individual takes the stand.

Again, we're talking in complete hyperbole.

Let's say...

The trial happens.

And I don't want to keep saying David's name because that's unfair.

But let's say a trial happens and someone takes the stand who has been accused of killing a young girl.

Not to play both sides, but possibly.

We have a battle going on right now on courts all over the United States on whether or not a rapper or singer's music lyrics should be allowed to be utilized against him.

And he gets on the stand and says something to the fact of that's disgusting.

I would never do that.

Whoever would do that, whoever would say that, whoever would joke that is a bad person.

On one side of the spectrum, you have artists, rappers saying the following.

Well, that opens door for all the rap lyrics to come in and start asking questions about it.

This is artistic freedom.

And asking him questions about why would you say that?

This is poetry.

This is expression.