When Charis Kubrin and I wrote our op-ed for the New York Times on the use of rap lyrics in trials, we knew it would get attention, but had no idea how much. Over the last week, we’ve been giving 2-3 interviews a day, and media outlets across the world have been reporting on this issue.  I am gratified to see that this issue is getting international attention, and I hope this is the beginning of a broader conversation about an ongoing injustice in our court system.

Here’s a sampling of the coverage so far:

Charis and I were on this HuffPost Live panel with Georgetown law professor Paul Butler and Lehigh professor James Peterson to discuss rap lyrics as evidence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew9BNCeh5sw

Vibe Magazine published this video that highlights our op-ed and asks larger questions about the use of rap as evidence:

The WGBH show Basic Black did this segment on our op-ed.  A really great discussion by a distinguished group of scholars from the Boston area (a special shout out to Prof. Emmett Price for his support and encouragement):

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s an interview I gave on rap-as-evidence to the CBC radio show Q with Jian Ghomeshi:

 

 

 

Meanwhile, here’s an interview Charis Kubrin gave on the same topic to NPR’s On the Media:

 

 

 

 

 

This is just a small sampling of the coverage, and more is to come.  The question now is how to turn this exposure into action…stay tuned.

In this op-ed for the New York Times, Charis Kubrin and I use the upcoming NJ Supreme Court case  State v. Vonte Skinner as our point of departure for a broader discussion of the (mis)use of rap music to put people in prison.  We recently completed an academic article on the subject, and we hope to draw attention to this issue in the coming months.