RAP AS A PROXY FOR BLACKNESS: HOW THE PROSECUTION OF RAP LYRICS CONTINUES TO UNCONSTITUTIONALLY RESTRICT FREE SPEECH RIGHTS.

Increasingly, prosecutors have charged rap artists under various true threats statutes based solely on the content of their song lyrics despite artists' First Amendment freedom of speech claims. This Article examines the progression of the true threats j urisprudence and its application to cases involving rap lyrics while also taking a critical look at the barriers Black Americans have faced in attempting to exercise their constitutionally protected right to free speech. Next, this Article contemplates various free speech theories which provide the basis for protecting the types of speech often at issue in rap music cases. Finally, this Article concludes by suggesting that courts should import the third prong of the Miller test, which requires an analysis of "whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value." In doing so, courts would strike a more appropriate balance between prosecutors' interests and defendants' First Amendment rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]