I recently came across this article by Caleb Mason, a law professor at the Southwestern Law School. Professor Caleb Mason wrote the Law Review article we’ve all been waiting for: a line-by-line analysis of Jay-Z’s 99 Problems. It’s intended as a resource for law students and teachers, and for anyone who’s interested in what pop culture gets right about criminal justice, and what it gets wrong. Jay-Z's "99 Problems" is the subject of a similar reading by Caleb Mason on the phenomenon of "driving while black." The Social Science Research Network has named BWO partner Caleb Mason’s article “Jay-Z’s 99 Problems, Verse 2: A Close Reading with Fourth Amendment Guidance for Cops and Perps” a Weekly Top 5 paper based on demand for it. "99 Problems" is the third single released by American rapper Jay-Z in 2004 from The Black Album.The chorus hook "I got 99 problems, but a bitch ain't one" is taken from the Ice-T single "99 Problems" from the album Home Invasion (1993). Ms. Mason’s article colorfully illustrates how the Jay-Z song can be used to illustrate common criminal procedure issues. in which Jay-Z is traveling down I-95 with drugs in his car and has a police encounter.. Verse 2 is a fairly accurate analysis of a person’s rights when stopped by the police. The hook was coined during a conversation between Ice-T and Brother Marquis of Miami-based 2 Live Crew. It is also, according to Southewestern University Associate Law Professor Caleb Mason, a valuable lesson for law students, policemen and drug dealers alike. “99 Problems” appears on every aughts best of list imaginable. ... Law professor Caleb Mason makes the second verse the subject of an essay for … Here, he analyzed Verse 2 of Jay-Z’s popular song 99 Problems. 99 Problems — Jay-Z’s song has been called ‘the story of America’ ... as expounded in a 2012 law review paper by Professor Caleb Mason. If you missed it when Law Blog wrote about it, do check out Southwestern Law School professor Caleb Mason's use of Jay-Z's "99 Problems" as a text for explaining Fourth Amendment (i.e. As every attorney who graduated since 2004 will recall, at some point during Criminal Procedure everyone left class thinking Jay-Z got it all wrong. This is a line-by line analysis of the second verse of “99 Problems,” by Jay-Z, from the perspective of a criminal procedure professor. — Professor Caleb Mason of Southwestern Law School, in a Saint Louis University Law Journal article that analyzes the legal issues in Jay-Z’s smash hip-hop hit, 99 Problems… Caleb Mason, Southwestern Law School Follow Recommended Citation Caleb Mason, Jay-Z’s 99 Problems, Verse 2: A Close Reading with Fourth Amendment Guidance for Cops and Perps , 56 St. Louis U. L.J. (2012).