Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Hugh McIntyre covers music, with a focus on the global charts. Hip-hop is bigger than ever, as it’s the most-consumed genre of ...

Young Thug performs onstage at the 2022 SXSW Conference on March 17, 2022, in Austin, Tex. (Amy E. Price / Getty Images for SXSW) By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree ...

Rap is a lyrical expression of social, cultural, and political issues in present society. Unsurprisingly, rap music is the most popular genre of music and features predominantly Black artists ...

Young Thug performs onstage during the 2022 SXSW Conference at Waterloo Park in Austin on March 17, 2022. Young Thug performs onstage during the 2022 SXSW Conference at Waterloo Park in Austin on ...

No one believes that country music legend Johnny Cash shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die. When Cash in 1968 released “Folsom Prison Blues,” a ballad about shooting and killing a man for no ...

NPR's Adrian Florido speaks with attorney Alexandra Kazarian about the ways in which rap lyrics are used in the criminal justice system. Should the government have the right to police a musician's ...

In Florida, rapper YNW Melly’s double murder retrial looms in 2024. Meanwhile, in Georgia, Young Thug is the latest high-profile hip hop artist to have his lyrics dissected in court. Prior to Melly’s ...

The double standard is almost as old as hip-hop itself. A decorated filmmaker gets laurels for his or her latest bullet-laden gangster movie. A rock or country star is proclaimed a songwriting genius ...

(CN) — Should someone’s creative work be used against them in a criminal trial? That was the question presented before the Maryland Court of Appeals earlier this year after rap lyrics sang in a ...

Gary Bryant Jr. exchanged gunfire with a man in an Antioch apartment parking lot on a July afternoon in 2014. Both were struck by bullets. Bryant survived and the other man died. Police said it was ...