While prosecutors have attempted to crack down on lyrics in the trials of Young Thug, Lil Durk, YNW Melly and others, a Maryland legislature has signed a Senate bill to protect creative expression.
Expected to be signed by Governor Wes Moore and scheduled, once that happens, to take effect on October 1, 2026, the Protecting Artists’ Creative Expression (PACE) Act ensures that “creative expression of a criminal defendant or juvenile respondent is not admissible against the defendant or respondent” unless there are certain findings or an exception.
Forms considered “creative expression” include music, visual and performance art, movement, poetry, film and more. In criminal and juvenile proceedings, the art forms will be considered inadmissible unless evidence finds that the expressions meet every one of four separate tests.
Those tests are: 1. The art in question was meant to be literal, rather than fictional or figurative; 2. There is a “close temporal and factual nexus” between the creative expression and the alleged crime; 3. The artwork is relevant to a factual issue the two sides are disputing; and 4. The evidentiary value of the artwork outweighs the harm it would do to admit it.
The law joins legislation passed in California (the Decriminalizing Artistic Expression Act) and Louisiana (Restoring Artistic Protection Act), while additional states on the road to enacting laws around lyrics and art include Georgia, Missouri, and New York.
Non-profit organization Free Our Art has stressed the protections of artistic material since launching in 2025, and on social media, the group celebrated the PACE Act being prepared for the governor’s signature.
Rappers like Travis Scott, Fat Joe and Killer Mike have voiced their support for incarcerated Texas man James Broadnax, who was 19 years old upon being arrested for the murders of Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler. Dallas prosecutors discovered 40 pages of handwritten lyrics with alleged incriminating details, and the now 37-year-old faces execution. You can read more about that case, currently being considered by the Supreme Court, here.
