Tay-K’s “The Race” Was Used as Evidence in His Murder Case Sentencing: Report

It looks as though Tay-K's infamous viral song "The Race" played a role in how much time he's getting in prison.

On Tuesday (July 23), the rapper was sentenced to 55 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of murder and aggravated robbery. According to a report The Fader published on Monday (July 22), jurors used "The Race" and its accompanying video as evidence in the rapper's sentencing.

During a sentencing hearing on Monday, jurors were reportedly shown the video and given a print-out of the lyrics after a witness submitted the items as evidence per the prosecutors' suggestion.

After being arrested for the murder of 21-year-old Ethan Walker in July of 2016, Tay-K was put on house arrest for several months before cutting off his GPS ankle monitor and becoming a fugitive of the law in March 2017. He recorded "The Race" during that period, chronicling his real-life circumstances as a man fleeing the law.

Prosecutors were fighting for a longer prison sentence and "The Race" might have been a factor in their case, which ended with Tay-K getting sentenced to 55 years in prison for murder, two concurrent 13-year prison sentences for aggravated robbery and an additional 30-year sentence for another count of aggravated robbery.

This is not the first time lyrics have been used against rappers in a court of law. Earlier this year, Boosie BadAzz's former lawyer, who had to deal with prosecutors using the rapper's lyrics against him in a 2007 murder trial, told XXL about the possibility of Melly's lyrics being used against him when he goes to trial for a double murder later this year. While the likelihood is high, he said he hopes that will not be the case.

"The thing that some law enforcement folks just haven’t realized yet is that rap lyrics are just lyrics, just like rock song lyrics are just lyrics, just like Al Pacino’s in his script in Scarface are just words on a page!" Jason Rogers Williams told XXL. "However, when the person who is rapping is young and African-American, they somehow want to make a leap that these things are not just creative."

Watch Tay-K's "The Race" video below.

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