Giggs speaks out against the police to support campaign against using rap lyrics as evidence

Giggs has spoken out against the police in a statement urging fans to support the Art Not Evidence campaign.

The campaign aims to restrict the use of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trials. Defendants are often unfairly prosecuted from lyrics typically understood to be exaggeration or fiction, or even appearing in rap videos.

As of June 2023, over 240 people in the UK have been jailed after a court decision that was in part based on their involvement with rap music.

Giggs took to his official Instagram account to speak about his experience with authorities and the use of his lyrics used against him in court.

“Evidence in court should be 100 per cent facts. 100 per cent facts. This is judging wether or not someone is going to face life in prison or even just one day. it should be 100 facts. Rap music, or art,  isn’t always 100 per cent facts. You can’t prove if something if something is 100% facts through listening to a song,” he said in a video post.

He then went on to cite his 2011 track ‘Wolf’ which he referred to in his caption as part of the reason he was sent to court in 2012.

“In 2012 i spent 7 months on remand in HMP Belmarsh for a firearms charge for a crime I did not commit with no evidence against me at all. The trial became all about my lyrics. This is ONE of the reasons why I am extremely passionate about this, I have lived /experienced/seen it first hand,” read the caption to the video he posted.

So far, the Art Not Evidence campaign has been backed by figures such as IDLES, Annie Mac and more.

Recently, campaigners spoke out against the criminalisation of rap lyrics in the House Of Commons.

Keir Monteith KC, a barrister who has defended numerous young men in trials where rap lyrics or videos are used as evidence, said young Black men are often indicted due to joint enterprise laws; even if defendants don’t murder the victim themselves, they can still be convicted of murder if they are interpreted as part of a gang (aka ‘joint enterprise).

Rapping, appearing in a drill video or merely “taking an interest in drill” is enough to convince jury members that defendants are part of a gang. Monteith called it “a complete travesty of justice”.

“Often the legal system locks up for life numerous Black defendants on the back of this joint enterprise, and often just on the basis of the actions of a single individual – literally hundreds and hundreds of years of injustice,” he said. “That’s why we need this legislation.”

Art Not Evidence’s open letter can be signed here.