Erik Nielson is Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of Richmond who has become well known as an expert in the use of rap music as evidence in criminal trials.[1][2][3] His book Rap on Trial: Race, Lyrics, and Guilt in America, with co-author Andrea Dennis, was published in November 2019 and received the Hugh Hefner Foundation First Amendment Award in October 2020.[4] [5] He was a consulting producer and interviewed for the documentary As We Speak: Rap Music on Trial, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024 and distributed by Paramount + starting on February 27, 2024.[6][7] He has served as an expert in court cases, and his testimony has been cited to exclude rap lyric evidence.[8]
Nielson's research focuses on the relationship between African-American culture and policing, as well as the relationship between hip hop and politics.[9][10][11] He has written for the New York Times and other mainstream news outlets on these issues.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18] He was the lead author of three amicus briefs with the US Supreme Court, two of which were jointly submitted with his frequent collaborator, Killer Mike.[19][20][11][21] Nielson and Travis L. Gosa edited The Hip Hop & Obama Reader. [22] Nielson was a featured participant in WRIC News' series Richmond and Race, a discussion among community leaders about race relations and police accountability in Richmond, VA.
References
edit- ^ "RAP ON TRIAL". RAP ON TRIAL. Retrieved 2024-02-29.
- ^ "Prosecutors would rather read rap as a threat than as art". Washington Post. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
- ^ ""A murder that involves a choking, a shooting, then a roping?": Why rap lyrics shouldn't be..." Retrieved 2017-09-28.
- ^ "Rap on Trial". The New Press. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
- ^ "2020 PRESS RELEASE". HMH Foundation. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
- ^ "Program Guide | 2024 Sundance Film Festival". festival.sundance.org. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
- ^ Welk, Brian (2024-01-24). "Rap Lyrics Criminalization Doc 'As We Speak' to Premiere on Paramount+ in February Amid Young Thug Trial — Watch the First Trailer". IndieWire. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
- ^ "Federal judge rejects use of rap lyrics as evidence | Erik Nielson". blog.richmond.edu. Retrieved 2024-02-29.
- ^ Nielson, Erik (2012-08-23). "How hip-hop fell out of love with Obama". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
- ^ "Obama and hip-hop: a breakup song". Washington Post. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
- ^ a b "The Hip-Hop Professor". Pacific Standard. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
- ^ Nielson, Erik (2018-08-09). "Opinion | If We Silence Hate Speech, Will We Silence Resistance?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
- ^ Nielson, Erik; Kubrin, Charis E. (2014). "Opinion | Rap Lyrics on Trial". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
- ^ "Art or evidence? After appeal, court rules violent rap lyrics not a confession". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
- ^ "How States Can Bring African-Americans Into the Marijuana Industry". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
- ^ "Where Did All The Female Rappers Go?". NPR.org. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
- ^ Nielson, Erik. "Did the Decline of Sampling Cause the Decline of Political Hip Hop?". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
- ^ "Rap's poetic (In)justice: Flashback". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
- ^ Liptak, Adam (2019-03-06). "Hip-Hop Artists Give the Supreme Court a Primer on Rap Music". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
- ^ "Erik Nielson | University of Richmond - Academia.edu". richmond.academia.edu. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
- ^ Edelman, Gilad (2015-12-28). "Killer Mike's Supreme Court Brief". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
- ^ Gosa, Travis L.; Nielson, Erik (2015). The Hip Hop & Obama Reader. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199341801.