"faced with making a reasoned judgment on the true meaning of the phrase "shizzle my nizzle", mr justice lewison was forced to conclude that the lyrics of rap records were, for all practical purposes, a foreign language. he dismissed the case.

andrew alcee, a writer of garage music, claimed that his original composition had been mixed on a record with rap lyrics containing references to violence and drugs, an act which amounted to derogatory treatment of his copyright...the court did its best to understand the lyrics, first by playing the record at half speed, then by watching a video...one of the problems of such a case, the judge admitted, was a lack of expert witnesses. he briefly pondered on the need for expert drug dealers to be called into court in similar cases to explain rap lyrics."

-the london times, 6 june 2003

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