Drill Rap - innocent or guilty?

[Screeeech]

So along with all the crime and other nastiness that's been on the rise in London over the last couple of years, a large chunk of which is related to gang culture and turf wars, has risen a new(ish) genre of 'music' called Drill Rap.

From what I can tell, essentially it's music written mostly by gangs which is used primarily to intimidate and threaten. The word "drill" or "drilling" is a Chicago term for shooting and Chicago was where the genre originally was born, prior to it's export to London.

In the last year or so there's been a huge rise in the amount of extremely violent and threatening drill rap being produced, mostly propagated via the usual channels, [youtube, instagram, facebook, etc]

The authorities have now taken notice and are making attempts to censor and regulate it, in some cases imposing court orders preventing "artists" from producing it, pushing it further underground. Attempts by media companies such Youtube crack down on it, resulting in artists simply uploading it to the well known online porn sites instead.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...d-from-making-music-due-to-threat-of-violence

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-44982560

Examples of Drill Rap;

The question is this;

Should we be trying to stop it? Watching it makes me feel very uncomfortable - yet I'm a huge fan of violence, I watched all the violent movies, play all the violent video games, I also used to listen to very violent music - including more recently old gunfighter ballads, by people like Johnny Cash and Marty Robbins (most of whom sing about casually shooting people in the head all day long) I also used to be a big fan of Cypress Hill - who use very naughty words all of the time, but were never banned by anybody.

Interestingly, as far as I can tell - the UK is the first country which has made efforts to actively ban and control the production of such 'music'. As someone who is firmly opposed to government intervention and authority in general - that does bother me, because I don't like the precedence and obvious slippery slopes which are created, regarding freedom of speech and freedom of expression - even if the speech or expression might be offensive or unsavoury.

However, on the flip side - we have a real problem with gang violence, where these people are producing music that fits into and attempts to glorify gang culture and violence, there is a portion of me which thinks this is very bad - maybe banning and controlling it will help, not because I'm a fan of government legislation, but because these gangs are clearly using it to provoke and intimidate. However I'm not totally convinced that bans or controls are the answer.

Naturally, in the golden age of government incompetence and stupidity that we're living in, there doesn't appear to be any other ideas on the table, and I don't expect any to appear.

Should the government attempt to ban or control it? or should it be allowed unrestricted?

 

[Screeeech]

Just watched half of the first video..why are these people so obsessed with traps?

Yeah I know lol, the tracks themselves seem to be almost procedurally generated with the exact same beat and bass rhythms, randomly arranged

 

[Screeeech]

I've listened to my fair share of 'gangsta rap' and I guess this is what they are maybe trying to emulate but this stuff just sounds repetitive and boring. I imagine those who are buying it will tire of it eventually and move on to something else, unless of course the government does continue trying to ban it and thus make it appear more 'edgy'

This is the thing that I find interesting, the government has gotten triggered over Drill Rap and started raging trying to ban it, however - it's only when the media started reporting on government intervention and bans that I even hear of Drill Rap, before then I hadn't even heard of it (and this is from someone who spends half his like in Hackney)

It's almost as though the act of becoming upset by something, makes it worse because everyone reports it - which propagates it.

 

[Screeeech]

Lol it's cute when British kids think they're American gangsters.

The thing that entertains me, is how the UK gangsters are making gun shapes with their hands and waving them at the camera making shooting sounds, whereas the Chicago gangsters are actually waving glocks and mac-10s at the camera rofl.

I agree with your other point too somewhat, in the fact that whilst it's just a bit of music - the end result is that they indeed get all stabby and acidy and it's expensive to everyone when we have to clean it up.

I don't think this current government have any idea how to solve the current rise in crime, things like banning drill videos on youtube might put a small dent in it and make the public think they're cracking down on gangs but a quick glance at a MPS or 999 twitter feed and you can see the scale of the issue and how it shows no signs of slowing down.

Agreed - I mean look at the effort that was put into trying to block the pirate bay and file sharing sites, the reality now - is even without a VPN I can now walk right onto any of those sites and download pretty much whatever the hell I want, everyone gave up when they realised it was literally impossible to stop.

 

[Screeeech]

usa people arent going to get 5 years for showing a gun are they. in uk they are.

Well obviously, but you have to admit it's pretty funny watching them make gun shapes with their hands along with pew pew sound effects ? or is it just me lol

 

[Screeeech]

There’s been shockingly violent lyrics in music long before drill. Some Eminem / D12 stuff is really horrible - some of the lines on ‘Fight Music’ stand out to me. Likewise, a lot of what I will broadly categorise at rock music is violent too - lyrics by the likes of Cannibal Corpse are pretty much unspeakable.

In all cases it’s arguably irresponsible but unless it’s legitimate threats against specific groups of people I think freedom of speech is an excellent defence.

Ha!

I'm glad you brought up Cannibal Corpse! I used to be a huge fan of them [went to see them in Manchester once, crowd surfing over and over, one of the best nights ever was hilarious ] they're actually quite a fun bunch, we met them after the gig outside and talked about crazy horror movies and had pictures taken

The one aggravating factor that I've noticed with a lot of Drill rap, is that it does in fact single out and threaten violence against other gangs and their members, that's kinda of why I started the thread - as to me there is a clear difference between naughty lyrics, and lyrics which actually target or threaten people;

 

[Screeeech]

Also it is unfortunate that we have people in society who are scared/anxious of 10 black men wearing balaclavas filming a video in a park and think armed response is appropriate even though NO crime has been committed. Imagine the anxiety these types of people feel just walking around the streets in a quaint village somewhere, let alone London. These are the types of people who will cause a police state because they have been brainwashed so much and feel so much anxiety.

To be fair, I assume you read the report? It seems that someone actually contacted the police and made an allegation that one of them might have had a firearm. Bearing in mind this is obviously some sort of gang related *thing* put two and two together - it seems reasonable to think that it might warrant further investigation?

With the current climate of gang problems, it seems to me (from all I've read) that the police made the right call; Put yourself in their shoes, they're damned if they do - damned if they don't;

Imagine the outcry if someone had called with a legitimate concern regarding a firearm, and the response from the 999 operative was "It's ok sir - they're probably just making a video" then someone gets shot?

 

[Screeeech]

Exactly. You are right. I'm not saying the police were scared I said a member of public was scared and called the cops and wrongly reported a firearm.

You're absolutely right that its not down to the cops to say "it's okay theyre just filming a video there's no firearm" it's down to the guy who's scared and watching from his window and wrongly reporting a firearm just because he's assuming they've got a gun just because he's been brainwashed into thinking 15 black boys in a park will have a gun on them.

Fair enough,

On the flip side I lived in Elephant and Castle for about 5 years, which is (was before it was gentrified) a very black neighbourhood, in the time I lived there I walked past a number of pools of blood with police cordons around them, saw numerous problems first hand and heard of countless others - most of which were almost always involving black teens/youths in gangs. There were some very frightening people hanging around at night.

The real eye opener, was when I watched a documentary on knife crime one evening (back in about 2015) that showed large groups of these people hanging around at night, casually in possession of things like zombie knives, airguns and in one case a firearm. At one part of the documentary they're interviewing a bunch of these kids armed to the teeth - the camera panned out and I was absolutely shocked to see they were all stood literally right outside the main entrance to the building I lived in at the time (the Strata tower at Elephant and Castle)

I'm a pretty strong tough(ish) guy, grew up playing rugby, can defend myself - and have done successfully in the past (I have a criminal record for it), generally there isn't much that frightens me - but these kids knocking about in the streets, like the ones in the video with the balaclavas, I'm not embarrassed to admit that they scare the ******** **** out of me, I wouldn't under any circumstances ever try to take them on if confronted I'd just run.

I'm not scared of them because the BBC says I should be scared or because I've been filled with propaganda, it's because I've seen first hand what these people get up to and the aftermath, they're scared of nobody, they have no parents, no accountability, the police don't scare them - nothing bothers them.

When someone calls the police because they have concerns in the manner that was reported, given the climate and the probable nature of the situation - it seems pretty reasonable action to take, when you combine all the factors.

 

[Screeeech]

People thinking black youths are all armed need to get real.

I don't think anyone is saying that, but I think it's reasonable given the evidence, that groups of black youths on the streets of London at night, might be best avoided, because they're more likely to be armed than anyone else.

I don't think this is being racist - it's common sense and trying to avoid conflict.

 

[Screeeech]

You would have to ban violent films, violent games and you would also have to ban most of the above genres. What about genres from other countries? Where does it end? The police should concentrate on crimes where there is enough reasonable enough suspicion to warrant arrests, and the gov't needs to draw in younger MPs to get a better view and understanding of the younger generation. This whole surveillance culture and nannying is getting old.

Well, I suppose the difference between things like violent video games and movies, is that generally they're based on fiction, or depict historical events - in the case of the Drill Rap one of it's main aims is to identify, target and threaten other gangs and their members, they identify individuals directly and threaten to take violent action against them, which is an aggravating factor compared to most other genres of violent music, which don't explicitly do that.

Despite my deep hatred of governments, regulation and censorship - I have to try and weigh up which is worse, in this case it's Drill Rap vs government control and bans vs freedom of speech.

To me, from a high-level view, it seems that the proposal for a ban is coming from people who can't see the wood for the trees, in the sense that - the main cause of the problem [gangs and gang violence] is forgotten or cast aside, and instead they try to go after all of these little symptoms of a bigger problem, rather than focus on the original problem, almost like they're trying to go for low-hanging-fruit. Like trying to ban knives - impossible, now trying to ban music - again impossible.

To me, if they focussed on the societal issues that cause young kids to want to be in gangs, that would kill all the birds with one stone, but with the quality of people in government, at this time - I expect nothing other than total failure, incompetence, stupidity, financial waste, poor ideas, no delivery, statements of nonsense and outright lies and spin-doctoring.