Law professor examines Jay Z’s infamous '99 Problems' lyrics
theGRIO REPORT - Caleb Mason, an associate professor of law at Southwestern Law School has written a legal review of Jay Z’s infamous hit song '99 Problems'...
Caleb Mason, an associate professor of law at Southwestern Law School has written a legal review of Jay Z’s infamous hit song “99 Problems”. The song’s lyrics are intended to be a re-enactment of a traffic stop on the New Jersey highway where Jay-Z allegedly encountered a police officer who attempted to search the rapper’s car for drugs. Jay-Z maintains that the song is based on an actual event where he was able to evade search and seizure when the rapper was stopped while smuggling drugs in a hidden compartment in the sun roof of his vehicle.
The I-95 corridor is a well-known drug trafficking route the rapper traveled years before his hip-hop career catapulted him to fame and fortune. Mason argues that the lyrics from the second verse, where Jay-Z objects to a search of his locked trunk and glove box, perpetuate an incorrect perception of how the Fourth Amendment works.
Click here to read the law review article on how the Fourth Amendment factors into the second verse of “99 Problems.”
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