I've discussed in earlier posts how our court system may not understand the inner workings and the particular moral/ethical boundaries of Hip-Hop culture well enough to make a fair judgement in the many lawsuits filed within the industry.
Looks like this British judge had similar concerns, more or less:
A high court judge did his best to get to grips with the lyrics of a rap song - and came to the conclusion that he really couldn't understand a word of it.
Mr Justice Lewison was faced with the task of deciding whether the composer Andrew Alcee had suffered damage to his honour or reputation through the "derogatory" use of his UK garage No 1 hit Burnin.
Mr Alcee complained under the Copyright Act that Burnin, released as a single by the concept group Ant'ill Mob, had been distorted or mutilated by its use as backing for a rap by Heartless Crew, which contained references to drugs and violence.
The judge said the claim "led to the faintly surreal experience of three gentlemen in horsehair wigs [himself and the two barristers in the case] examining the meaning of such phrases as 'mish mish man' and 'shizzle my nizzle'."
In any event, the words, although in a form of English, were "for practical purposes a foreign language" and he had no expert evidence as to what they meant...
