Fat Joe is adding his voice to a growing call from hip hop artists urging officials to halt the execution of Texas rapper James Broadnax.
Broadnax was sentenced to death in 2009 after being convicted in connection with two killings the year before. A key element in the prosecution’s case involved 40 pages of handwritten rap lyrics attributed to him. Several prominent figures in hip hop now argue that using those lyrics in court violated fundamental rights.
Fat Joe joined artists including Killer Mike, T.I., N.O.R.E, Young Thug, and Travis Scott in supporting a petition that challenges the legal basis of the conviction. Advocates for Broadnax say the case raises serious concerns about how artistic expression is treated in the justice system.
Speaking about his decision to support the effort, Fat Joe emphasized that rap music often draws from imagination rather than real events.
“I just happen to know that hip-hop music comes from a place of creativity and imagination,” Fat Joe tells the outlet. “…There’s nowhere on earth that the stuff that we write is actually real.” In his opinion, rap lyrics are no different from books or movies. “So to see someone go to trial with the lyrics they used on songs that came from their imagination to be used against them is a crime in itself.”
Fat Joe also framed the issue as a broader cultural concern tied to artistic freedom.
“We have to definitely take care of our freedom of speech, our freedom of expression, and our freedom of imagination,” Fat Joe added.
Reflecting on the creative process, he said, “The music talks to you. It’s hard for someone who doesn’t make music to understand this. The beats tell you what to write—sometimes it’s happy stuff, sometimes it’s depressing stuff, [or] sometimes it’s party stuff.”
He concluded that the legal system should not treat rap lyrics as factual confessions, adding, “I do believe that the prosecutors and the judges know that this is unfair as well.”