Though rap music is the most listened to genre in the United States, it is still the only creative medium consistently being used to prosecute and incarcerate people. As We Speak: Rap Music on Trial, a documentary by J.M. So why are lyrics used in this way? Harper, director of As We Speak, believes prosecutors are missing the “brilliance and poetry” of rap music. Her writing and photography is featured in outlets like Insider, Brown Girls Doc Mafia, and Documentary magazine.