[theme music]
NARRATOR: From New York City-- the only city in America--
it's the show that invented news.
This is The Daily Show with your host, DL Hughley.
[cheering, applause]
[theme music]
What is going on, everybody?
How you guys doing?
All right.
Welcome to The Daily Show.
I am DL Hughley, and this is my last night guest hosting.
And thank you, guys.
I had a great time, met a lot of good people.
And Happy Black History month.
[cheering, applause]
It goes fast.
You got to mark them all down.
That's it.
I got to meet a lot--
so this couple, you've been married 44-- stand up.
Stand up. You've been married 54 years.
- 55. - 55.
Ooh, look it.
He got it right.
Now, that is a long time.
And you said the key to it is, what?
HUSBAND: Patience.
Patience.
That's the wrong-- she's supposed to say that.
You're supposed to say love.
And you say-- and you say it's, what?
WIFE: Madly in love.
Madly in love.
All right.
I'm going to have something nice for you guys,
but only half of it because-- you know.
Thank y'all for coming out.
I appreciate that.
[cheering, applause]
We have a great show for you tonight,
so we're going to get into the headlines.
[theme music]
This is a crazy story from California, where a dad,
he drove his whole family off a cliff in a Tesla.
So fortunately, they all survived,
but when the paramedics arrived,
the wife said that he did it on purpose.
Now, I've been married for 38 years.
I can tell you, I love my wife and children very much.
And I would never drive them off a cliff.
But I've thought about it.
I've thought about it.
[laughter]
Anybody who's been in the car with screaming-ass
kids and a cliff available--
either you have thought about it, or you're lying.
Look at him.
I thought about it, yeah.
But I was patient.
[laughter]
Kids will drive you crazy.
You ask me about that bathroom one more damn time,
we're going off the cliff, I swear.
Even the judge would be like, will the defendant--
I mean, hero-- I mean, defendant, please stand up.
All right, what I don't understand
is how a Tesla can survive going off a cliff,
but it can't make it down the street
without blowing the [muted] up.
I don't understand that.
[laughter, clapping]
But now we're going to move on to the dumpster
fire that is Fox News.
Now, you have got to hear the latest
thing they're talking about when it comes to police
shooting Black people.
Many on the left know just who to blame and want
to blame-- white supremacy.
Here's something that Whoopi, the ladies of The View
apparently don't know.
White people do get beaten by the police.
In fact, far more white people are killed every year
by cops than any other race.
According to an online organization that
tracks this data, 374 white Americans died during police
altercations in 2022.
If you average that out, a little more than one per day.
I don't know if the ladies of The View
know any of the names of the people-- the 374 people.
So based on both academic studies and actual data,
there is no systemic racism in policing.
It doesn't exist.
Now, of course, there are good cops,
and I would say that's the vast, overwhelming majority.
And there is a small majority of bad cops.
He said it--
small majority of bad cops.
Now, that is a Freudian slip for your ass.
[applause]
That is one.
[applause]
Obviously, it wouldn't be surprising
that police kill more white people than Black people
because there are way more of them.
Way more.
That's like, more white people die in NASCAR races
than Black people.
Of course.
Somebody check on Bubba Wallace.
Make sure he all right.
Make sure we got--
[laughter]
But Sean is right.
The police do need to stop killing white people, too.
Welcome to the struggle, my brother.
You tell 'em.
[cheering, applause]
He's like the white Al Sharpton.
It's great.
And finally, here's a story about why
you should always keep your eyes on your children.
REPORTER (VOICEOVER): Meet Mason
Stonehouse, the six-year-old with a big appetite.
This past Saturday before his bedtime--
I gave him the phone to play, and I wasn't paying attention.
I was watching my show.
REPORTER (VOICEOVER): But Mason wasn't playing a game.
He was scrolling through the Grubhub app.
What dad didn't know is that Mason was actually
placing order after order, and all those orders
were being filled.
A parade of food delivery-- the total damage, nearly $1,000,
helped by Mason's generous spirit.
And then he tipped 25% on every single order.
[cheering, applause]
And that is why you drive your family off a cliff.
That's why.
Only a father would leave a kid unattended that long.
That would never happen with a mother.
He ordered $1,000 worth of food.
He should be glad that he didn't
open your browser history.
Ooh.
[laughter]
I'd have gave him $1,000 just to keep that quiet.
[laughter]
You can have all the food you want.
Just don't tell your mama.
For more, we're joined by Dulce Sloan.
Dulce, what do you--
[cheering, applause]
What do you think about this whole Grubhub history thing?
Well, I'll tell you one thing.
This would never happen with a Black family.
[laughter]
If a Black child spent $1,000 on his father's phone,
there wouldn't be any heartwarming
news story about it.
That $1,000 worth of food would be served
at that child's funeral.
[laughter]
[applause]
You never hear from that little boy
again, unless there was some white woman talking about him
on a true crime podcast.
Little boy dead. $1,000 on my phone where I pay rent?
He's dead.
So why do you think he was so lucky?
I mean, listen, he was lucky.
But also, he needed to learn not to be so greedy.
He was lucky because he was a white child.
And the thing is, he didn't have to order $1,000
worth of food all at once.
No, little man.
You're supposed to order it a little bit every night.
And then you keep the scam going for years.
Like, you don't walk into your local grocery store
with guns blazing.
No, no, no, no, no.
You just "forget" to scan half the shit at the self-checkout.
[laughter]
[applause]
But you got to admit, this had a happy ending.
Grubhub refunded all the money.
AUDIENCE: What? AUDIENCE: What?
What you mean?
[laughter]
Grubhub gave them all of the money back, refunded it all.
Grubhub gave them $1,000 back?
The hell?
They wouldn't give me $7.00 back when some
driver ate my French fries.
[laughter]
[cheering, applause]
Do you know how hard I'd have to work to get
$1,000 back from Grubhub?
I'd have to start a hashtag, be trending on Black Twitter,
call the NAACP, have a sit-in at the Grubhub headquarters
with the ghost of Martin Luther King.
[laughter]
$1,000 back.
But listen-- wait a minute, I ain't got to do all this.
I just need to have a baby.
Yeah, just have a baby. It's perfect.
Yeah.
Why do you need to have a baby?
Well, one, because I've looked like a mother of three
since I was 15.
Two--
[laughter]
Hey, man, listen, I started high school
with D-cup titties.
I should've been way more popular.
Stupid boys respected me.
Listen.
Two, because kids are the ultimate loophole
for stealing shit.
DL HUGHLEY: Ooh.
Just pretend the baby did it.
You're going to get it for free.
Like, oh, no, did my sweet baby boy crawl across my keyboard
and order another Chanel bag?
Ah.
[laughter]
You little scamp.
Oh. Somebody come get this baby.
He's wild.
What if the baby snitches on you?
First of all, my baby going to know better, OK?
What I look like having a snitching-ass baby?
You crazy?
Two, who's going to believe him?
He's a baby.
It's his words against mine, and he
only knows three of them--
Mama's not home, OK?
[cheering, applause]
They won't know shit.
Mommy didn't do it.
Come on.
Plus, babies don't have object permanence.
How is he going to snitch on me after I stop existing?
[laughter]
[cheering, applause]
Ooh.
Where's Mommy?
Mommy's not home.
Who got Mommy a Chanel bag?
That would work for a little while.
But obviously, the baby's going to be an adult,
and so then what would you do?
Then they get their own baby, and then that's how
you build generational wealth.
[laughter]
[cheering, applause]
Now, that-- that's a plan.
Dulce Sloan, everybody.
All right.
When we come back, we're going to talk
about how rapping can land you in prison,
so you don't want to go away.
[cheering, applause]
[cheering]
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
Now right now in Atlanta, the rapper Young Thug is
on trial for gang activities.
And it is not without controversy.
REPORTER 1: Atlanta rappers Gunna and Young Thug,
responsible for dozens of chart-topping hits,
they find themselves at the center
of a controversial debate in court.
Should rap lyrics be used as evidence in the courtroom?
The rapper's lyrics, one piece of evidence prosecutors
are using in the indictment.
(RAPPING) I never killed anybody,
but I got something to do with that body.
REPORTER 1: The prosecution citing lyrics
like that in the indictment as proof of criminal conspiracy.
The district attorney believes he
is the ringleader of the YSL gang,
and his lyrics are fair game.
I think if you decide to admit your crimes over a beat,
I'm going to use it.
[laughter]
That sounds like every mama I've ever seen in my life.
[laughter]
FYI, young people, when your name is Young Thug or Gunna,
you're going to go to jail.
That's--
[laughter]
You mumble rapper, but they heard
him clearly on that wiretap.
I know that.
The issue is, should prosecutors use
rap lyrics in criminal trials?
That's what I want to talk about tonight in our segment,
Long Story Short.
[cheering]
Well, since the '90s, prosecutors
have used lyrics as evidence against defendants in more
than-- over 500 trials.
But don't get me wrong.
If you rap about something you did
do, well, that's a confession.
If you rap about something you didn't do,
that is artistic expression.
And here are just a few examples of ways
rappers' lyrics get used in court.
REPORTER 2: A rapper named Torence
Hatch, known as Lil Boosie, was tried for first degree murder.
Prosecutors argued that a few cryptic words of one rap song
were, in fact, a confession.
REPORTER 3: Rapper McKinley Phipps
was sentenced to 30 years in prison for manslaughter.
Prosecutors presented spliced-together lyrics
from two different songs as evidence at his trial.
REPORTER 4: Police say Antwain Steward, a rapper who
goes by the name Twain Gotti, made a big mistake when he
recorded the song "Ride Out."
Police believe Steward brags through his lyrics
about how he killed Brian Dean and Christopher Horton.
Listen.
REPORTER 2: Some of the details match the shooting
happened on a porch.
No witnesses immediately came forward.
But others don't.
The time of day is wrong.
There wasn't a stabbing.
The caliber of the gun is wrong.
And there's only one victim mentioned, not two.
Based largely on that rap and on the accounts of two
witnesses given years after the shooting,
the rapper was arrested and charged with double murder.
OK, they got the gun wrong.
They got the stabbing wrong.
They got the number of victims wrong.
The only thing they got right was the porch.
And every Black person I know got a goddamn porch.
I mean-- and, by the way, not everything Black
people say in songs is true.
Like, Bob Marley-- he didn't actually shoot the sheriff.
[laughter]
He just wanted you to think he did so y'all wouldn't [bleep]
with him.
That's it.
Sir Mix-a-Lot-- he don't like big butts.
Nope, he's more of a boob guy.
Trust me.
[laughter]
And I'm a comedian.
I ain't never in my life seeing a rabbi and a priest walk
into a damn bar.
I've never seen that.
Art is an expression.
They use this to reflect Black life in America.
And now they're being punished for it.
But some prosecutors say, too bad.
REPORTER 2: David LaBahn is a former gang prosecutor.
He's now the CEO of the Association
of Prosecuting Attorneys.
I would say you can't have it both ways.
Cannot say that I'm rapping about stuff because this is
what I live in, and this is what I see every day,
and then come into court and say,
everything that I said in that rap is completely untrue.
Yeah, you can have it both ways.
It's called fiction.
And they--
[applause]
They have a whole section in Barnes and Noble's.
Read a book, bitch.
[laughter]
I don't even think that prosecutors think
their lyrics are a confession.
They just do it because it works.
And it works because juries are made of people,
and people are kind of racist.
As a matter of fact, in a recent study,
people were given identical lyrics
and told that they either came from country artists or rap
artists or heavy metal artists.
And, surprise, surprise, people were
more likely to think that rap lyrics
were written by a criminal.
Clearly, rap is just code for Black person.
Country is code for white person.
Heavy metal is code for, who the [bleep] knows?
I don't know what that is.
[laughter]
But there is violence in almost every art form.
But the one with young, Black rappers
is the only one that gets treated this way.
And this isn't even hypothetical.
There was a white woman on trial
for murdering her husband.
And she had written an essay called,
"How to Murder Your Husband."
And guess what-- the judge--
he wouldn't allow the essay to be
read in court because he said it could prejudice the jury.
[groaning]
She lucky Dr. Dre didn't write the foreword.
[laughter]
And I agree with that judge.
It does prejudice the jury.
The worst part about all of this
is that rappers have to listen to their lyrics
get butchered in court by people with no flow at all.
Hey, this is that slime shit.
Hey, YSL shit.
Hey, killing 12 shit.
Murder gang bitch.
YSL until we're dead and pale.
I never killed anybody, but I got something
to do with that body.
Ready for war like I'm Russia.
Slimeball [bleep] like ya, ya, ya.
Would I lie?
I got mob ties.
[laughter]
And y'all thought Nick Cannon couldn't rap.
[laughter]
So, look, there are a whole lot of problems with the justice
system in America.
But this is an easy fix.
Long story short, just stop using lyrics in court.
[applause]
That rhymed, but don't use it against me.
I was just kidding around.
Stay tuned because when we come back,
I'm going to be talking about this issue
with a rapper whose lyrics got him sent to prison.
[cheering]
[applause, cheering]
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
Now, my next guest tonight is a rapper whose lyrics put
him in prison for 21 years.
But he recently put out a new album called Son of the City.
Please welcome Mac Phipps.
[music playing]
[applause, cheering]
All right.
New York, New York.
It must be weird to see the very thing you were
convicted of a long time ago being in the headlines
again, huh?
Yeah, and this time with another rapper.
DL HUGHLEY: I know you're glad about that part.
That's pretty-- [laughs] it ain't you.
Yeah.
You remember what the lyrics were that they used to send
you to prison, to send you?
Yeah.
So they used two different songs.
It was a song I had called "Shell Shocked"
and one called "Murder Murder."
So what they did was they took the chorus part
from "Murder Murder," in which I say,
"Murder, murder, kill, kill.
It's real on the battlefield."
So they took "murder, murder," and they took a line
that I used from "Shell Shocked" about my father,
where I said something to the effect like,
"He gave me his name, he gave me the game,
and if you F with me, he'll put a bullet in your brain."
So they put them together, and they said,
"Murder, murder, kill, kill.
If you F with me, I'll put a bullet in your brain.
This is the words of this young man."
And then they pointed to me in court.
And yeah.
That made me scared to finish this interview,
I'mma tell you that.
But interestingly enough, because--
here's the thing.
I think-- I'm an artist like you're an artist.
I think that art should be protected.
MAC PHIPPS: Absolutely.
I think that there should be no limits on art.
I shouldn't necessarily know if you mean it or not.
MAC PHIPPS: Right.
That's the purpose of art, right?
MAC PHIPPS: Right.
But ultimately, there are a lot
of people who say a lot of things they actually did,
and that's the problem.
There's a difference between artistic expression
and a confession.
And I think that some people are so determined
to prove how hard they are or where they came from that they
telling on themself.
And the whole street code-- snitches don't get stitches,
they get immunity from prosecution.
That's what they get.
Right.
And I guess-- and if you might--
and to add to that, I think that even if there are
people that's doing what they're saying,
I speak for the majority. DL HUGHLEY: Right, dead on.
And for the majority, it's straight fiction.
I mean, most of these guys--
I mean, not the more well known artists, but let's
talk about some of these artists
that don't have as big of a name.
DL HUGHLEY: Right. - In this song, he says--
and I think prosecutors don't get the right to cherry-pick
what is fiction-- - They do.
--and what is not.
That's specifically the gig.
What they do is they don't care about being right or wrong.
They care about if they can win.
Right.
And I think that what-- we have
this conflation with words and what
they mean and their impact.
And we just showed you an example
of the kind of biases that can-- like, I write
an essay called, "How to Murder Your Husband,"
that isn't admitted.
Right.
You write, "Murder, murder, kill, kill," and it is.
Right.
And it is unfair, but I think the whole thing is that we
have to protect art in general, whether we agree, like it,
or not. - Right or not.
I don't like everything I hear,
but art needs to be protected.
And then I--
[cheering]
And I totally agree.
I totally agree because in one song this young man may say,
well, I killed four people, but in this very same song,
he says he own a Bugatti, a Learjet, a helicopter.
Right.
And he's sitting here with a court-appointed attorney,
so we know this is false.
Right.
So I mean, in hip hop, we use similes.
We use metaphors.
We use hyperboles. - Right.
We exaggerate.
Rakim said it.
We like to exaggerate, dream, and imagination.
So I just think that it's unfair
when they get to cherry-pick, OK, this part of the song
is true, and this part of the song is fiction.
I just think that's wrong.
Even now, you've been through everything
you've been through.
The one thing I noticed about you when I walked
into your room, you still got light in your eyes,
so that's-- that means-- and it's not
just because of what you do, it's because of who you are.
And they're-- art does that for you, man.
So-- - Right.
--the fact that you go through that,
have an experience that could turn you sour,
and you use it to create-- guess what--
more art, that says something.
Right, right.
And--
[applause, cheering]
And, DL, honestly, just being here
is a reflection of that hope that I kept the whole time--
DL HUGHLEY: Sure.
--I was there for 21 years.
I made a promise to myself.
I said I was never going to let this situation
turn me black-hearted.
I never wanted to be bitter or mad about it, so--
DL HUGHLEY: You didn't want them--
the situation, the terms which you were convicted of.
- Yeah. - That's amazing.
I wasn't-- I like to win.
I like to win, y'all, and you wasn't going
to turn me into a miserable, bitter person, you know?
So when I came out, I said, well,
I got to get to work because there's
other guys who I left behind that
are in similar situations.
Master P's brother, C-Murder, is in a similar situation.
DL HUGHLEY: Sure, sure.
His image was used against him and--
DL HUGHLEY: C-Murder? - Right, right.
Yeah, so you know what's interesting?
You have a new album now. It's called Son of the City.
Son of the City.
DL HUGHLEY: Now, did you use any of them
"murder, murder, kill, kill?"
Y'all didn't use none of that? - No.
I bet that ain't an album.
No, no.
No.
And I think much of that has to do with just maturity and--
DL HUGHLEY: Just growing up. - I'm a grandfather.
DL HUGHLEY: Right. - You know what I mean?
So I mean, ultimately, I was going to mature as a
musician anyway.
A lot of these young men that's rapping about what they're
rapping about today, they won't be talking
about that in 10, 15 years.
I mean, this album is a reflection
of a more mature, grown man.
DL HUGHLEY: How many tracks you have on this album?
It's 10 tracks on it.
DL HUGHLEY: What's your favorite?
My favorite track is "Proverbs" because it's
what I would tell the world.
If I had the world's attention for four minutes,
those words are what I would say to them.
DL HUGHLEY: Well, I ain't got four minutes.
Give me 30 seconds. - 30 seconds?
Yeah.
All right.
May your tomorrows be filled with promise and the opposite
of sorrow, amongst other things,
for I know that it's a struggle just to go with the flow,
when feet will take your many places
you would rather not go.
But fret not your soul and now the fear of the things that
you just might behold, but cannot control, for in time,
you'll know the reason.
Everything has a season.
I swear that not until it's cooked do we start eating.
DL HUGHLEY: Ah!
I believe in the power of us made in their image
and in their likeness.
The reason we write this is what hopes it will inspire,
others to take it higher and further than those before us,
because they're waiting for us.
So your thoughts make your reality,
and I wish that I can share with
y'all all the formalities.
But if I had to sum it up in just a few words,
it will only take seven.
On Earth as it is in Heaven.
DL HUGHLEY: Ah!
[applause, cheering]
[laughs]
Thank you.
Now--
Yes, sir.
--I'mma tell you what.
I'm just saying-- - Thank y'all.
Thank y'all.
Look, I'm no composer, but that's
a damn sure a lot better than "murder, murder, kill, kill,
I'll put a bullet." I'm just saying.
I was 21.
Mac Phipps, everybody!
Thank y'all, New York!
His album, Son of the City, is available now.
OK, we got to take a break.
We're going to be right back after this.
Let's go.
[applause]
Well, that's it.
That's going to hold me.
That is my week.
I've had a lot of fun hosting this week.
Thank you all for watching.
Make sure you tune in next week,
when your new guest host is going to be Chelsea Handler.
Now, here is your Moment of Zen.
Knocking off your big homie bitch.
[bleep] [bleep] the police.
[bleep] 'em in a high speed.
Hundred rounds in a Tahoe.
This that slime shit.
This that mob shit.
[bleep] the judge.
YSL.
This that mob life.
(SINGING) MTV.