On February 13th, Florida rapper YNW Melly was arrested for the murder of two of his friends in October 2018. Melly, born Jamell Demons, is facing first degree murder charges, as ballistic evidence points to a premeditated crime. According to initial reports, the two victims, Anthony Williams, and Christopher Thomas Jr, were shot and killed in a drive by shooting. Demons’ accomplice Cortlen Henry, corroborated this story, claiming that their car was shot at as they were pulling out of the freeway. However, the locations of the bullet casings and an autopsy of the victims told another story. The new report states that Demons and Henry were the culprits, and had shot their own car after killing WIlliams and Thomas to make it look like a drive by. They then drove around with the bodies of the two victims for a while before taking them to the hospital. Furthermore, Demons had released a song called “Murder on my Mind” earlier in the year, which describes him wanting to and committing murder with a surprising amount of detail. The content of this song has not helped his case, as it seems like too big of a coincidence. Despite overwhelming evidence against him, Demons has pleaded not guilty, and posted a tweet regarding his thoughts, saying, “I want you guys to know I love you and appreciate every single one of y’all, a couple months ago I lost two brothers by violence and now the system want[s] to find justice… unfortunately a lot of rumors and lies are being said but no worries god is with me and my brother @ynw.bortlen and we want y’all to remember it’s a ynw family”.
Questions to Consider:
- Do you think Melly is guilty of the crimes he is accused of?
- Should the police be able to use song lyrics as a justifiable cause to launch an investigation?
- If so, then should other artists also be investigated for the content of their songs in the past?
I think as fans, we expect authenticity from the artists. No where is it mentioned when the song was written and under what circumstances. I do not think song lyrics are a justifiable cause to launch an investigation. Artists should have the freedom to express whatever they want through whatever lyrics they want and they should feel safe to do so without the fear of being put on trial. For example, A popular artist Billie Eilish likes to put herself in different characters when writing her lyrics. Maybe Melly's lyrics weren't his actual thoughts and he could have been in character. Or maybe he wrote this song a while ago based on a dream. There is no evidence to prove that these are his actual thoughts. Artists should be free to express whatever they want and should not be held against their work. It is not my job to determine whether or not Melly is guilty. There is evidence from the autopsy's so he most likely is guilty, but his lyrics should not be used to convict him. The police should use physical evidence to determine whether or not he is guilty. Therefore, other artists should not be investigated for the content of their songs. The songs themselves don't hurt anybody and they are considered art, so whatever the artists express should be safe.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that using the song lyrics and connecting them to the murders would be a good action because it could be a coincidence, but also that there is no substantial evidence that pins him to those murders. The lyrics to the songs are not justifiable to use in the songs, because that could have been him letting out his feelings in an aggressive way, without actually doing anything. Writing one;s thoughts is different than taking the thoughts to action. Also, it is not concrete evidence of murdering the two men. Other artist from the past should not be investigated for the content of their songs again, it may not be enough to convict.
ReplyDeleteSong lyrics should not serve as a bypass for confessing crimes without punishment. The police should take this seriously like any other crime and question the suspects. The song lyrics itself cannot be used as evidence that he committed the crime but it should at least warrant an investigation of the artist. In his tweet, he claims the have "lost two brothers to violence" but never says he did not commit the murder, and there seems to be sufficient evidence against him to say that he did. This isn't controversial just because of the song itself, but because he was arrested not long ago for a crime that he claimed was false but then wrote a song about a very similar case which makes him suspicious.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that song lyrics should be used as a reason to launch an investigation alone. When we do this we are limiting the creativity artists are allowed because they express themselves through their music without putting it into action. I think that with this case there can be other reasons to launch an investigation like the bullets not matching the report that Demons and Henry made initially. If the lyrics are used against him, then also his other pieces of writing like his tweet of "lost two brothers to violence" shows that he is remorseful.
ReplyDeleteMelly is probably guilty of the crime he committed. There are reports that he and his friend drove in the car where his friends died for a while before going to the hospital. The bullets found in the vehicle also don't reflect what would happen in a drive by. I do not believe song lyrics should be usable in a crime case, as they are statements of artistry. Many of the times lyrics may be false. Making lyrics admissible stifles creative and limits the stories that people are able to tell.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a case for the court and not twitter. It does not matter what his fans are saying online and it is the role of a jury of Melly's peers to determine if he in fact committed the crime. Just because Melly is a popular artist does not mean that his written lyrics are exempt from evidence, since they are relevant to the case at hand.
ReplyDeleteSong lyrics shouldn't be used as evidence against artists. Many artists have made songs about so many different things using metaphors to get their point across. They are artists using their lyrics as a freedom of expression. Billie Eilish has written multiple songs where it seems as if they are about killing friends and lovers. That doesn't mean that she actually did any of things. While song lyrics shouldn't be used as evidence, it does seem like there is something fishy going on. I think the bullets should be enough to launch an investigation. I don't think other artists should have to be investigated for their lyrics. Again, if there is other evidence that shows that they committed a crime, then by all means, they should investigate. If the singer was a painter and painted the death of a friend in some way obscure, people wouldn't normally think anything of it. I don't know if Melly is guilty and I don't feel like I know enough to say I have an opinion. Once more information comes out, we will see if he is guilty or not.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that the police should be able to use song lyrics as a justifiable cause to launch an investigation. Often times, artists write lyrics about hypothetical situations rather than situations based off of real-life events or their true motives. Therefore, it is difficult to separate between what an artist writes in their lyrics and what truly happens in their lives. If we were able to use song lyrics to launch investigations, like others said above, we would limit artists’ creativity as they would be worried about what they should or should not include in a song. We should also not conduct investigations on other artists for the content of their past songs. It would also be unrealistic to investigate past songs anyways since there are probably a lot of past songs with questionable lyrics that we previously overlooked.
ReplyDeleteI think that he is guilty, the police evidence seems very clear in the fact that they are lying about the cause of their friends death. The fact that they left the bullet casings in the car really and the pattern of the bullet wounds leaves no other plausible answer. The police can't and aren't using the lyrics as the basis for their investigation. Rappers sing about committing crimes all the time and that is never really investigated in a meaningful way. The investigation came from the actual death of the two people and from Melly's claim of a drive-by.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Melly's music should be used to incriminate him. It shouldn't even be used as any sort of an indicator of his ability to murder another person. In the rap world, there's a lot of people who talk but don't actually back up their lyrics with action. It's hard to differentiate fact and fiction in the rap world so there shouldn't be any investigations launched as a result of lyrics. However, the lyrics could be used as a reason to make a rapper a suspect to a potential murder. But for any sort of legal action to happen, there needs to be some sort of tangible evidence besides the rap lyrics. That being said, I think that the evidence does point to Melly as a suspect and he should be prosecuted. The evidence seems to point to him as one of the culprits.
ReplyDeleteLike the previous comments, I don't believe song lyrics should be used as evidence against artists in court or as the sole reason to launch an investigation of an artist. However, if there are suspicious circumstances that align with an artist's lyrics, I think it's definitely justifiable to launch an investigation. Police do not and cannot launch investigations based solely on artistic content; it is only when there are already circumstances that would usually warrant an investigation that song lyrics are taken into account.
ReplyDeleteI am not entirely sure whether I think Jamell Demons is guilty for the crime or not. However, song lyrics should not be used as evidence against artists in court. The song "Murder On My Mind" was written while Demons was previously in prison. He has said that the lyrics describing the "murder" is metaphorical. Artists should not be investigated on the crimes they make music about.
ReplyDeleteDemons' conviction should be solely based on concrete evidence gathered by the police department regarding witnesses, autopsy data, and the bullet casings mentioned above. The lyrics of the song should not be considered in a court of law. If song lyrics could convict someone of murder, than many rappers and other lyricists would be in prison now. A distinction must be made between referring to murder and actually committed it.
ReplyDeleteDemons is guilty to the deaths of his friends. I believe that the lyrics are viable evidence to prove that he thought about killing because of the Easter eggs laid in the words he had written. I wouldn't fully say it can be seen as clear evidence. One of the biggest reason that makes sure he is guilty is the ballistics report, not just having an accomplice, but the ballistic report that proves that there was close shooting.
ReplyDeleteThe lyrics of the song can not be used as concrete evidence to prove hime guilty. The song was written and came out before the crime occurred so there is a lack or correlation to the song and the crime, making the lyric a faulty piece of evidence. I don't think that holding other rappers accountable for their lyrics should be looked into as a case. I think that many rappers have lyrics that may make them sound cool but don't actually do any of the actions that the lyrics may contain. A lot of songs are about seeming cooler and creating a persona about themselves and I don't think it should be taken seriously and used against them.
ReplyDeleteLyrics cannot be used to prove a person is guilty of a crime. Rappers rap about pulling out guns and killing "things" frequently. It is unfair to call him a killer or murderer based on the lyrics alone. There will need to be significant evidence presented and then the lyrics can be used as an additional reinforcing evidence.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do not believe a song's lyrics should be used against an artist as evidence that he/she committed a crime, I think officers should have the right to raise an eyebrow and be more cautious of an artist who does publish lyrics with murderous or criminal thoughts and be able to find other more concrete evidence that proves an artist guilty of their crime. Aside from the lyrics, I think there's plenty of evidence that points towards the fact that Melly is guilty of the crimes he is accused of such as the bullets found not matching his story.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's justifiable to use song lyrics as a justifiable cause to launch an investigation. Even if the lyrics of the song seem like a suspicious coincidence, there's no hard evidence just from the lyrics that Demons necessarily committed the crime. I do think, however, that it's reasonable to use the lyrics as something to dig at Demons' motives. As there's lots of evidence against Demons, the police should be able to launch an investigation against him but just not using the song lyrics as a justification for the investigation.
ReplyDelete