Travis Scott Asks Supreme Court to Stop Using Rap Lyrics as Evidence

Travis Scott filed a brief with the Supreme Court on March 9 backing a death row inmate whose own handwritten rap lyrics helped put him there. It's the latest — and arguably most urgent — push by the hip-hop world to get the nation's highest court to weigh in on whether creative expression can be weaponized in criminal cases.

James Garfield Broadnax was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to death. During the sentencing phase of his trial, prosecutors introduced roughly 40 pages of his handwritten rap lyrics. Not during arguments about guilt. During sentencing — the part that decided whether he'd live or die.

Killer Mike and other artists filed their own separate brief making that distinction crystal clear: the lyrics weren't used to prove Broadnax committed a crime, they were used to paint a picture of who he was as a person. That's a loaded move in a courtroom, especially when the genre in question is rap.

Broadnax's legal team has filed a Writ of Certiorari, formally asking the Supreme Court to take up the case. His execution is currently scheduled for April 30, which means the clock is ticking in the most literal sense possible.

“New York and California have both passed laws that restrict how prosecutors can use song lyrics in court.”

This fight isn't new. The Young Thug RICO trial put the issue under a national spotlight, with prosecutors leaning heavily on YSL lyrics and social media posts as evidence of gang activity. Artists like Chance the Rapper and Meek Mill have previously tried to get SCOTUS involved, but the court hasn't been receptive. In 2019, it ruled that rapper Jamal Knox's lyrics didn't qualify as protected speech.

There's been some movement on the legislative side. New York and California have both passed laws that restrict how prosecutors can use song lyrics in court. At the federal level, the RAP Act was introduced in 2023 to do something similar nationwide, but it hasn't made it to a vote.

The tension is straightforward: rap is the only genre where writing about violence routinely gets treated as a confession. Nobody's hauling country songwriters into court over murder ballads. Travis Scott's brief, alongside the filings from Killer Mike and others, is trying to force the Supreme Court to finally draw a line.

With Broadnax's execution date less than two months away, the court's decision on whether to even hear this case could come fast. If SCOTUS takes it up, it would be the first time the justices seriously grapple with rap lyrics as evidence. If they don't, the fight moves back to Congress and the stalled RAP Act.