The Case Of The Violent Rap Lyrics

Should the menacing music of a performer in legal trouble affect his sentence?

- Vicki Glembocki

NEFTALI ALVAREZ-NUNEZ was guilty, and he knew it. On March 21, 2015, while walking out of a bar in Cataño, Puerto Rico, the rapper spotted some cops and immediately threw the handgun he had hidden in his clothes to the ground. The police detained him and found the gun, a loaded Glock 9 mm fitted with an extended magazine and modified to fire as a fully automatic weapon. Alvarez-Nunez was also carrying ammunition and six Percocet pills. He pleaded guilty to two counts under U.S. law: possession of a machine gun and possession of that gun and ammo by an illegal drug user. He expected the district judge to sentence him to 24 to 30 months in jail, the standard predetermined range for his crime according to U.S. law, and he was prepared to serve his time.