‘Making A Murderer’ Subject’s Brother Makes Christian Rap; Cites TobyMac, KJ-52, & Eminem as Influences

The “Making A Murderer” Netflix documentary is filled with frustrating twists and turns, and in another unforeseen scenario, a family member is making the rounds as a Christian rapper pleading his family’s innocence.

Brad Dassey, the half-brother of the incarcerated Brendan Dassey, recently released a song called “They Didn’t Do It.” The track has already amassed around 130,000 plays on YouTube and roughly 300,000 listens on Soundcloud.

***SPOILERS*** (Skip ahead five paragraphs to avoid)

For readers who never heard of “Making A Murderer” it is the tragic story of the Avery family in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Back in 1985 23-year-old Steven Avery was accused of a brutal rape on one of the town’s women. The Avery family were frowned upon as they were considered the town outcasts and a bit of troublemakers. Steven had been arrested a few times on lesser charges but had just gotten married and had twins babies just days old. He was trying to get his life together and then he was charged and sentenced for over 20 years for this crime. He was an easy target, and the woman was well-known and respected in Manitowoc.

The Avery’s pleaded Steven’s innocence with all evidence pointing to neglect and convenience without even placing him at the crime. Finally after 18-years new evidence proved Steven’s innocence – he was free. Over the course of the next two years as a now 40-year-old man, he tried to get his life together and began taking the steps of filing a lawsuit against the Manitowoc justice system.

As that was coming to fruition something incredible happened – a horrific murder occurred at Avery’s scrap yard. Once again Avery was indicted, and so was his nephew Brendan Dassey, a then 16-year-old boy with learning disabilities. Avery was convicted with life in prison and Dassey was given essentially the same sentence as he can’t be paroled until he is about 58.

Here’s where it gets tricky. The Netflix documentary shows the case to favor the Avery’s, and from what is seen it appears there is equal evidence in them doing the crime and there being corrupt police and lawyers conspiring to save themselves.

Nevertheless, Avery and Dassey have been in prison for 10 years for a crime they may not have committed. Avery altogether has been in prison for 28-years.

***SPOILERS END****

Brad Dassey is the half brother of Brendan, and has maintained his family’s innocence for all these years. He released the song around the time the documentary came out and has stated he did not do it for 15 minutes in the spotlight. He has done it purely for support and is making no money off of downloads or ads. In fact, according to his personal site, all of his music is available for free.

“I’m not really trying to get famous. It’s all in God’s hands. But whatever is going to happen is going to happen. But people are sharing it, and that’s the power of the whole thing. People must believe in what I said in the song. They must believe in the beat,” Dassey said in his interview with Noisey. “There must be something very alive about the song, otherwise it’s not just gonna blow up like this overnight. I’m very hopeful for the future.”

The indie emcee also stated that a visit with Brendan in 2011 encouraged him to rap. His brother wanted him to spit some lines on the spot. “They Didn’t Do It” was also spawned out of the suggestion of followers who said he should do a song about his brother’s alleged injustice.

An excerpt from his site bio:

“Since Christmas of 2010, the Lord has led Brad to write, record and produce 14 songs as to which he is only releasing a handful of these songs to the public at this time. Brad’s long term goals are to impact the world through the healing messages and sounds of the music God has called him to create. Brad wants to help the world and help people who are lost, suffering, struggling in life and need encouragement. Brad really hopes to impact the lives of children and teens the most because he feels they need it the most. Brad also wants to encourage the adults as well.”

The half-brother sites Eminem and Tupac as his biggest influences, but also grabs inspiration from TobyMac, KJ-52, and John Reuben. He even said Lecrae is probably the best rapper in the game right now.

For more info on Brad Dassey and his gospel hip-hop, click here”.

What do you think about the “Making A Murderer” case? Do you think other Christian rappers should speak about corruption and injustice in their music?

Justin Sarachik
Justin Sarachik
Justin is the Editor-in-Chief of Rapzilla.com. He has been a journalist for over a decade and has written or edited for Relevant, Christian Post, BREATHEcast, CCM, Broken Records Magazine, & more. He's written over 10,000 articles, done over 1,000 interviews, and is in post-production for documentaries on Danny "D-Boy" Rodriguez & Mario "Machete" Perez. He's the project manager of the upcoming video game Run the Court and of the media brand Crimefaces. Justin likes to work with indie artists to develop their brands & marketing strategies. Catch him interviewing artists on Survival of the Artist Podcast & creating videos on his social media channels.
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