The federal authorities has a roughly 90 % conviction price, that means preventing a federal case is nearly at all times a shedding battle. Through the years, dozens of rappers have taken the FBI head-on with combined outcomes.
One of many earliest circumstances of the Feds getting concerned in hip-hop got here in 1990, when a federal decide dominated that tracks off 2 Reside Crew‘s 1989 As Nasty as They Wanna Be album, together with “Me So Sexy,” “D**okay Almighty” and “The F**okay Store,” have been too obscene, making it unlawful in sure counties within the Sunshine State to play and promote the album. Group members have been even arrested for violating a prohibition towards obscenity once they carried out the songs at a South Florida membership. The landmark case went all the way in which to the Supreme Courtroom, which acquitted the rappers, citing the liberty of speech.
YoungBoy By no means Broke Once more has battled the Bureau a number of occasions. In 2020, he was arrested at a music video shoot in Baton Rouge, La. and hit with federal gun expenses. The next 12 months, he was arrested by federal brokers in California who have been executing a search warrant in reference to the Baton Rouge case. In 2022, YB took the Cali case to trial and was acquitted. In 2024, he was sentenced to virtually two years in jail for the Louisiana gun cost.
Diddy is the most recent rapper to face the Feds. After being charged with racketeering conspiracy, intercourse trafficking and transportation to have interaction in prostitution in September of 2024, Puff was acquitted on RICO and intercourse trafficking expenses throughout trial and is presently awaiting sentencing for prostitution-related expenses. However there are various extra rappers who’ve confronted the federal authorities and both beat their circumstances or did severe time.
Learn Extra: There Are Some Critical Hip-Hop Trials Going Down in 2025
Take a look at 21 occasions hip-hop took on the feds and the outcomes beneath.
See a Historical past of 20 Excessive-Profile Hip-Hop Fed Instances
