Maryland Restricts Rap Lyrics as Evidence, Expanding the “Rap on Trial” Push

Maryland has become the third state to curb how prosecutors can use rap lyrics in court, after Gov. Wes Moore signed the Protecting Artists’ Creative Expression, or PACE, Act on Tuesday, May 12. The law does not ban lyrics outright, but it does make it harder for prosecutors to turn creative writing into criminal evidence, a practice critics have argued has long distorted trials and deepened racial bias.

At the signing ceremony in Annapolis, Moore framed the bill as a response to a lopsided pattern. He said hip-hop lyrics have been cited in court more than 800 times, while songs from every other genre combined have been used only four times. “This is not a coincidence. This is bias,” Moore said. “In Maryland, that ends today.”

For years, prosecutors have leaned on rap lyrics to help secure convictions against the artists who wrote them, a tactic now commonly grouped under the umbrella of “rap on trial.” The list of defendants includes major names like Young Thug and Lil Durk, both of whom have faced indictments that quoted their lyrics, along with countless lesser-known and amateur rappers whose words were pulled into court records.

The backlash against that practice has grown more organized, especially among music-industry advocates who argue that lyrics are being treated less like art and more like admissions. California passed the first law aimed at restricting the practice in 2022, followed by Louisiana in 2023. Maryland now joins that small group, with proposed bills already being pursued in New York, Georgia and Missouri.

“Today, Maryland makes history and sends a message that our creativity is not a confession, and our imagination does not belong in an indictment,” Kevin Liles, CEO of Warner Music Group’s 300 Entertainment and a longtime advocate on the issue, said in a statement Tuesday.

Harvey Mason jr., the Recording Academy’s CEO, echoed that view in the same statement. “Lyrics are a powerful tool for personal expression, not a shortcut to criminalization,” he said. “This legislation helps establish important guardrails that ensure artists’ creativity is not unfairly used against them.”

The PACE Act stops short of a full ban. Prosecutors can still bring in music when it is plainly relevant, but they now have to clear a higher bar. They must show by a “preponderance of evidence” that the lyrics are actually worth admitting. Before jurors ever hear or see them, judges will need to determine that the artist meant them as literal statements, that they match the facts of the case, and that they speak to a disputed fact at issue.

That narrower standard matters because the legal use of rap has rarely been about subtle interpretation. It has more often reflected a stubborn habit of treating Black artistic expression as suspicious by default. Maryland’s move will not end that dynamic overnight, but it does add pressure to a prosecutorial practice that critics have spent years trying to make legally risky, rather than culturally convenient.