 I'm a nigga from the block where they hardly make it. I don't pay with little kids when I'm chit-chat. Since you got a bloody mouth from a shitbag. Rapper Drake with the Ruler's new album Thank You for Choosing GTL has some of the most graphic and lyrically interesting wordplay you'll hear in a 2020 rap album. Tell you the truth, I don't even know these niggas. Tell you the truth, I think you're the police nigga. Tell you the truth, all that kind of sound like snitching. Tell you the truth, get the fuck up on my penis. Pitchfork called the album Mesmerizing, and The Washington Post called it the most urgent rap album of the year. What's most astonishing about Thank You for Choosing GTL is that it was recorded entirely from a prison telephone in Los Angeles. Thank you for using GTL. With criminal justice reform in the spotlight, Draco's new album may help bring attention to the story of how he ended up in prison in the first place. At his first trial, prosecutors used Draco's lyrics and videos as evidence that he had committed a 2016 murder at an LA party. I think many people find it difficult to imagine that these young men are doing something complex, sophisticated, that could be considered literary, artistic. Eric Nielsen is the co-author of Rap on Trial, which chronicles the growing phenomena of criminal prosecutors using hip-hop music as evidence. I think many of them understand that they are misrepresenting rap lyrics. They're doing it because they want the jury to see this stuff that is, you know, salacious, it's profane, and therefore you're compromising somebody's right to a fair trial. One video that was used featured Draco, whose real name is Darrell Caldwell, rapping and dancing with his crew while holding guns and wearing monkey masks. During his trial, Caldwell maintained he had never been in a gang, and that his lyrics were art, not meant to be taken literally. The jury wasn't convinced and convicted Caldwell on only one count of illegal gun possession. LA's district attorney refiled charges on criminal gang conspiracy and shooting from a vehicle. Because of California's harsh gang laws, he could face life in prison. Draco talks about this experience in one of his new songs. Because phone calls from prison are recorded, Caldwell refers to the fact that law enforcement is on the line. Nielsen has worked with a rapper killer Mike on the issue, collaborating on an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court. In the midst of recent police reform protests, killer Mike has made prosecutors partially a point of his activism. As prosecutors become bolder in the ways and strategies that they're using to put artists, rap artists in jail, I do think that we are reaching a point at which many people are going to have to weigh their desire to engage in this art form. You know, to master this art form, they're going to have to weigh that with the reality that it could get them in trouble. As these cases continue to grow in number, I do think that that is absolutely possible.