Art Battle: Perceptions of Criminality in Rap vs. Stand-Up Comedy

Applied research on perceptions of rap music shows that it is viewed more negatively than other musical genres, such as rock or country (e.g., Dunbar et al., 2016). This is in part due to associations between rap and Blackness, including stereotypes about Black people in general and about rappers specifically (e.g., Reyna et al., 2009). In the United States, prosecutors will sometimes present a rapper’s lyrics as a form of confessionary evidence in the courtroom (e.g., State of New Jersey v. Vonte Skinner, 2012). The practice of using art as criminal evidence appears to be unique to the musical genre of rap, and does not generalize to other provocative artforms, such as stand-up comedy. In this paper, we present two experiments (N = 465, 349) that explore differences in the public’s perceptions of criminality in Black vs. White rappers and comedians. Results show consistently that rap was perceived as more criminal and harmful than comedy, though there was little effect of race in these judgments. We discuss potential policies aimed at decreasing the inherent prejudice associated with using rap lyrics as confessionary evidence, such as implementing rules of evidence that recognize lyrics as artistic and often fictional narratives.