A Law Professor Analyzes Jay-Z’s 99 Problems

Caleb Mason is an associate professor of law at Southwestern Univeristy. He’s a hip hop fan and a lawyer with a sense of humour.

In a paper published for the Saint Lous University Law Journal, he took a line-by-line look at Jay-Z’s case as outlined in “99 Problems.”  Turns out that Jay-Z is pretty much on the mark–with one exception.  Via Gawker:

In my rearview mirror is the motherfucking law/I got two choices y’all, pull over the car or/Bounce on the double put the pedal to the floor

The calculation Jay-Z has to make is whether, knowing that the car contains concealed contraband, he’s better off trying to flee or hoping that the police won’t find the drugs during the stop. This may be the hardest choice perps face (until they have to decide whether or not to cooperate), but there’s only one answer: you are always better off having drugs found on you in a potentially illegal search than you are fleeing from a potentially illegal search and getting caught. The flight will provide an independent basis for chasing and arresting you, and the inadequacy of the quantum of suspicion supporting the initial attempted seizure will not taint the contraband discovered if there is an intervening flight. Law students: practice explaining the preceding sentence to a layperson. Smugglers, repeat after me: you have to eat the bust, and fight it in court.

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