TAMPA, Fla. — A jury found 5 people guilty of following rapper Julio Foolio from Jacksonville to Tampa to murder him. The conviction closed one chapter of the Tampa Bay case, but it opened a much larger conversation about the role art played in securing those guilty verdicts.
Throughout the trial, one piece of evidence stood out: the music itself.
Assistant State Attorney Scott Harmon pointed to the lyrics and imagery as evidence of intent and motive during the trial. Prosecutors pointed to specific language in songs and music videos, arguing that what the defendants put on the record, literally and figuratively, told the story of what they planned to do and what they ultimately carried out.
"Drill rap is a different type of rap. It is a specific type of rap," Harmon said during his opening statements.
The genre distinction mattered to prosecutors. Drill rap, known for its unflinching, often violent imagery, became a focal point in the state's argument that the music was not merely artistic expression; it was a window into intent.
Among the lyrics cited as evidence, prosecutors pointed to language with a specific meaning within the culture.
"Who I Smoke, meaning who is killed or shot," was among the lines presented to the jury.
For the state, a song titled "Foolio Dead" was not a coincidence. It was, they argued, a declaration.
A trend playing out in courtrooms across the country
The Julio Foolio murder trial is far from the only case where lyrics and videos have been introduced as evidence. Across the country, prosecutors have increasingly turned to defendants' music, social media posts, and online personas to help build their cases.
Right now, singer D4VID is facing charges in LosAngeles for the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez. His song lyrics have been viewed through an entirely different lens since his arrest, with prosecutors examining whether the music contains details that mirror the circumstances of the crime.
Cases involving YNW Melly and Young Thug have also put rap lyrics at the center of criminal proceedings, raising the same fundamental question each time: at what point does a song stop being a song?
Tampa attorney TJ Grimaldi said the answer is not simple, and the legal community is still working through it.
"I think that there's arguments why it can be evidence, and I think there's arguments why it can't be or shouldn't be," Grimaldi said.
Grimaldi broke down the distinction based on timing. When a song exists before a crime takes place, he said, it carries a different legal weight than music released after the fact.
"I think that if there was a song predating the crime, I think you can use it as intent, I think you can use it as maybe motive, and I think you can use it as premeditated if it's something along the lines of a murder, and if the song comes out afterwards and it has telling signs in the song, I think that it is potentially circumstantial, but I think it can be used to show that the person had obviously inherent or very specific knowledge about the crime," Grimaldi said.
That distinction between premeditation and circumstantial knowledge is at the heart of how prosecutors have approached these cases. A song written before a murder can suggest planning. A song written after, with details that mirror the crime scene, can suggest something harder to explain away.
Grimaldi said that, in the D4VID case specifically, the lyrics contained very specific details that aligned closely with what investigators found.
"The rap itself had so many very specific instances of what they found at the crime scene and what they found occurred prior to the crime scene that even if they don't convict them on the rap itself, I think they can very strongly use it if they find other evidence to corroborate that he is in fact involved, because then how do you explain the two?" Grimaldi said.
The persona problem
But the use of artistic expression as evidence is not without serious legal and ethical concerns. At the center of the debate is a question that artists, attorneys, and cultural critics have wrestled with for decades: how much of what a rapper says is real, and how much is performance?
Local musician Tareef Knockout said the line between the two is something every artist navigates.
"I've always looked at rap as a form of storytelling, so I try to step a no truth to that essence to the art form within authenticity, speaking about my own life experiences, as well as sharing experiences, life experiences that I may have witnessed from somebody I know, or a distant relative or friend, and speaking, sharing their story through mopping, so it's a, you know, as artists, you know, we, we often do, at times, take on this persona, or can exaggerate certain stories, but it's just, it's to an effect, just as if you, you're watching a movie, you kind of want to paint this picture as vividly as you can to draw in and lure in the audience," Knockout said.
That vivid picture-painting, Knockout said, is precisely what makes rap powerful as an art form. But it is also what makes it vulnerable to misinterpretation in a courtroom.
"It can be a thin line right there between creative expression and how, how people may perceive it publicly, especially to complete strangers that don't know you if you deal, if you're in a situation like that," Knockout said.
Grimaldi echoed that concern from a legal standpoint, arguing that the persona an artist creates should not automatically be treated as a confession.
"I think, unfortunately, in our society today, forget just song lyrics. I think social media in general is being used against people to help prove crimes, and I think that there's a slippery slope with that, especially when you're talking about song lyrics, because people have personas that they create, right, and it's freedom of expression, it's First Amendment arguments, it is just artistic decisions, maybe that's the decision that he's decided to take his career in, that's what he raps about, or that's what he feels comfortable rapping about, or if it's not even songs, if it's just posts, that's what they feel comfortable posting about, and then therefore it can be used against them, and that's a concern for again freedom of expression, first amendment, artistic creation, all those things become problematic because what if he didn't do it and he may know the person that did it and just got information from them and then use that to create this persona that he's this tough guy because unfortunately I think on the internet a lot of people create that tough guy persona especially us males create a tough guy persona and try to live that way, at least in their artistic world," Grimaldi said.
Knockout said the pressure to maintain that persona is real, and that social media has made it more intense — and more dangerous.
"It can, yeah, because you're getting hyped off that, you getting, you seeing the followers, you're getting likes and virals and moments, but I think society and social media has played a major role in that, and what's happening in real time, because these are like real life experiences people are going through and living, but once once something takes on a persona like that, and it kind of avalanches, I think, from that perspective, you know, someone may feel that they have to continue living up to that, when and over exaggerate what's going on, not knowing that this could be detrimental down the road," Knockout said.
The jury factor
Grimaldi said that beyond the legal arguments, there is a practical reality about how juries respond to music and imagery presented in a courtroom.
"Juries want, they juries watch TV shows, they watch movies, they want that aha moment to convict somebody. They want when, when someone is killed, they want to see the killing in action when someone is hit by a car. They want to see the impact occur when you have a song that is played just like yesterday, and how it will continue to be played throughout this. If I was a prosecutor, I would continue to play the song throughout the trial. All it does is reinforce. Is what they're seeing as actual evidence, and is going to convince people in their own minds that, hey, I'm seeing this evidence, and this guy is talking about this, it's got to be the case," Grimaldi said.
That psychological reinforcement, he said, is exactly why prosecutors keep returning to the music, not necessarily because it is the strongest evidence, but because it helps weave a narrative that makes the other evidence feel more conclusive.
"I think it's very important, especially with the jury," Grimaldi said of building a seamless narrative. "It's going to convince people in their own minds."
Grimaldi was clear, however, that in his view, lyrics alone should not be enough to convict.
"While it is not, in my opinion, or shouldn't be, especially because of First Amendment and artistic pleasure, and all these types of things, it shouldn't be used to convict, but I unfortunately think it's going to be a very strong tool moving forward as the internet continues to be as strong as it is to help prosecutors convict on these sorts of crimes," Grimaldi said.
Beyond music: Social media and everyday expression
Perhaps the most sobering takeaway from both conversations is that this issue extends far beyond the music industry. Grimaldi said he is currently defending a murder case in which social media posts, not songs, are being used against his client.
"They are using some of his social media posts, potentially against him to suggest that what they want the facts to be are true based on these social media posts that this individual used or post in the past, and it doesn't necessarily say anything about the crime that he's being charged with, but what it says is that he's this type of person or that type of person," Grimaldi said.
The implication is significant. A post, a photo, a hand gesture captured on camera, any of it can be reframed in a courtroom to suggest character, affiliation, or intent.
Grimaldi used the example of a hand sign that might mean something entirely different to the person making it than it does to a prosecutor presenting it to a jury.
"Some people may throw the sign that they think has nothing to do with what they're throwing it forward. I think people throw the sign, not thinking what other meanings of that sign may be, and they may, especially at a certain age, they might have no understanding because it's no longer something that is shown on a regular basis," Grimaldi said.
Knockout said the music industry has had to adapt to this reality, even as it continues to grapple with it.
"The music industry is adopted and changed like so much just within the last five years, or you know, 10 years, so I think we all here trying to figure it out," Knockout said.
He added that for his part, he has made a deliberate choice to stay grounded in his own authentic experience rather than chasing a viral moment that could later be taken out of context.
"I don't view myself as an influencer, you know, I'm always about the arts and having that creative expression, and when it becomes influencer, it seems more people try to play into this persona, or you know, living for that viral moment, and just trying to capture that lightning in a bottle, so people are artists are really, really out here willing to do pretty much anything for that one viral moment to click for their claim to fame. I've never wanted it like that," Knockout said.
Grimaldi's conclusion was direct: the longer social media exists, the more it will be used against the people who use it.
"In my opinion, as social media is the longer social media sticks around, I think the more prevalent it's going to be in many, many more types of cases," Grimaldi said.
The music and lyrics were by no means the only evidence in the Julio Foolio murder trial. But the case, and the convictions that followed, show something that artists, attorneys, and anyone with a social media account may need to reckon with: words matter, and in the eyes of the law, they can mean far more than the person who wrote them ever intended.
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