Erik Nielson (academic)

This article is about an American academic; not to be confused with Erik Nielson (footballer).

Erik Nielson is a Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of Richmond who has become well known as an expert in the use of rap music as evidence in criminal trials.[1][2][3]

Early life and education

Nielson graduated with a B.A. in from the University of Virginia in 1998. He further pursued education at the University College London and University of London, earning a M.A. in English in 2001, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Sheffield in 2011. His dissertation at the University of Sheffield was titled "Under Surveillance: The Evolution of Black Arts in the United States."[4]

Career

His book Rap on Trial: Race, Lyrics, and Guilt in America[5], with co-author Andrea Dennis, was published in November 2019 and received the Hugh Hefner Foundation First Amendment Award in October 2020.[6][7] He was a consulting producer and interviewed for the documentary As We Speak: Rap Music on Trial, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024 and distributed by Paramount + starting on February 27, 2024.[8][9] He has served as an expert in court cases, and his testimony has been cited to exclude rap lyric evidence.[10]

Nielson's research focuses on the relationship between African-American culture and policing, as well as the relationship between hip hop and politics.[11][12][13] He has written for the New York Times and other mainstream news outlets on these issues.[14][15][16][17][18][19][20] He was the lead author of three amicus briefs with the US Supreme Court, two of which were jointly submitted with his frequent collaborator, Killer Mike.[21][22][13][23] Nielson and Travis L. Gosa edited The Hip Hop & Obama Reader. [24] Nielson was a featured participant in WRIC News' series Richmond and Race, a discussion among community leaders about race relations and police accountability in Richmond, VA.

References

  1. ^ "RAP ON TRIAL". RAP ON TRIAL. Retrieved 2024-02-29.
  2. ^ "Prosecutors would rather read rap as a threat than as art". Washington Post. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
  3. ^ ""A murder that involves a choking, a shooting, then a roping?": Why rap lyrics shouldn't be..." Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  4. ^ "Erik Nielson - School of Professional and Continuing Studies - University of Richmond". University of Richmond. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
  5. ^ Nielson, Erik; Dennis, Andrea L. (2019). Rap on trial: race, lyrics, and guilt in America. New York: The New Press. ISBN 978-1-62097-340-0.
  6. ^ "Rap on Trial". The New Press. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
  7. ^ "2020 PRESS RELEASE". HMH Foundation. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
  8. ^ "Program Guide | 2024 Sundance Film Festival". festival.sundance.org. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
  9. ^ Welk, Brian (2024-01-24). "Rap Lyrics Criminalization Doc 'As We Speak' to Premiere on Paramount+ in February Amid Young Thug Trial — Watch the First Trailer". IndieWire. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
  10. ^ "Federal judge rejects use of rap lyrics as evidence | Erik Nielson". blog.richmond.edu. Retrieved 2024-02-29.
  11. ^ Nielson, Erik (2012-08-23). "How hip-hop fell out of love with Obama". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
  12. ^ "Obama and hip-hop: a breakup song". Washington Post. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
  13. ^ a b "The Hip-Hop Professor". Pacific Standard. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  14. ^ Nielson, Erik (2018-08-09). "Opinion | If We Silence Hate Speech, Will We Silence Resistance?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
  15. ^ Nielson, Erik; Kubrin, Charis E. (2014). "Opinion | Rap Lyrics on Trial". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
  16. ^ "Art or evidence? After appeal, court rules violent rap lyrics not a confession". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  17. ^ "How States Can Bring African-Americans Into the Marijuana Industry". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  18. ^ "Where Did All The Female Rappers Go?". NPR.org. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  19. ^ Nielson, Erik. "Did the Decline of Sampling Cause the Decline of Political Hip Hop?". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  20. ^ "Rap's poetic (In)justice: Flashback". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  21. ^ Liptak, Adam (2019-03-06). "Hip-Hop Artists Give the Supreme Court a Primer on Rap Music". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
  22. ^ "Erik Nielson | University of Richmond - Academia.edu". richmond.academia.edu. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  23. ^ Edelman, Gilad (2015-12-28). "Killer Mike's Supreme Court Brief". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
  24. ^ Gosa, Travis L.; Nielson, Erik (2015). The Hip Hop & Obama Reader. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199341801.
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