Mac Phipps News Today

Imagine music that you wrote being held against you in a criminal proceeding. In the documentary “As We Speak: Rap Music on Trial,” the Bronx-born rapper…

"As We Speak: Rap Music On Trial" is a new Paramount+ documentary on the fight over rap lyrics being used in criminal trials in the U.S.

Wayne Benjamin Jr. just needed a job.

A didactic documentary about the criminalization of rap lyrics is never as deep or insightful as you'd like it to be. Our As We Speak review:

In 'As We Speak,' hip-hop artist Kemba and director J.M. Harper take viewers on a journey of the ways rap lyrics have been weaponized in the courts.

J.M. Harper’s doc, which premiered at Sundance, follows Bronx rapper Kemba as he shines a light on this racist, deeply problematic legal tactic.

YNW Melly's lyrics could be used against him as he faces a retrial for a double murder with prosecutors seeking to introduce them as evidence.

The YSL indictment is not just the latest example of law enforcement focusing its efforts on rappers, it’s the product of a city that has spent years cultivating a growing stereotype between its hip-hop community and gangs.

Relic is a love letter to New Orleans in all its beauty and heartbreak.

Relic is a love letter to New Orleans in all its beauty and heartbreak.