Liles has launched a change.org petition titled “Rap Music on Trial: Protect Black Art,” which currently has a goal of garnering 5,000 signatures.

“Today in courtrooms across America, Black creativity and artistry is being criminalized. With increasing and troubling frequency, prosecutors are attempting to use rap lyrics as confessions,” Liles wrote in the petition.

“This practice isn’t just a violation of First Amendment protections for speech and creative expression. It punishes already marginalized communities and silences their stories of family, struggle, survival, and triumph,” he added.

Liles then went on to reference the sweeping Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act violation charges that’re being levied against 28 rappers, including Young Thug and Gunna.

The situation, which kicked off last month, notably relies on the rappers’ lyrics being utilized as evidence that they were involved in criminal gang activity — a legal strategy that could land many artists in hot water.

“Currently in Georgia, multiple artists belonging to Young Stoner Life Records — including Grammy-winning artists like Young Thug — are facing more than 50 allegations, including RICO charges which claim the record label is a criminal gang,” he noted.

“The allegations heavily rely on the artists’ lyrics that prosecutors claim are ‘overt evidence of conspiracy.’ In the indictment, Fulton County prosecutors argue that lyrics like ‘ready for war like I’m Russia’ are a confession of criminal intent,” Liles continued.  “This shameful and un-American practice must end.”

This is a petition credit by @300 — Kevin Liles. A petition to PROTECT Black Art.

If you are attending @HOT97 Summer Jam on Sunday, there will be an opportunity for you to sign a petition.

Please. Do what you need to do.

— smoove. (@SmooveTheSource) June 10, 2022

Towards the end of the petition, Liles went on to shoutout the New York State Senate for recently passing a bill that limited the use of rap lyrics as evidence. He also encouraged other states to follow suit.

“We urge the prompt adoption of legislation at the Federal and State level that would limit how prosecutors can use creative and artistic expression as evidence against defendants in criminal trials. We applaud the New York State Senate for passing S.7527 – the “Rap Music on Trial” Bill – in May.  We hope that it and similar Bills will become law across America to end this attack on our First Amendment freedoms that disproportionately harms Black and other minority artists,” he wrote.

You can learn more about the “Rap Music on Trial: Protect Black Art” petition here.