The literature on the origins of violence indicates that causal factors are diverse and shaped by local contexts. Broad themes of violence as grievance redress, as political resistance, and as accrual of human capital, find form in location-specific examples worldwide. When one turns one’s gaze homewards and considers London’s burgeoning gang violence problem, viewing events through the prism of drill rap can be revealing. Drill rap is both an expression and facet of street violence and life on social margins that is dominated by London-based artists, who, with “raw energy… speak their truths with stark honesty”. A violent attack is called a “drill”, and the perpetrators “drillers”, giving the genre its name. Artists rap about the physical violence they witness to try and escape the structural violence (Galtung, 1969) they suffer, while police commit violence by stifling this legitimate means of making money. Rappers talk of pain, poverty, and violence to try to generate vitality, wealth, and safety. Authorities, taking lyrics too literally, battle to constrain them and stymie upwards social mobility, a struggle narrated through music and verse.
“Put yourself in Black man’s skin and watch the Feds [police] pree [watch] everything” (C1, LTH)
Drill lyrics depict structural violence that subjugates and excludes disadvantaged Black London youth. Hatred and distrust of the police are common motifs, unsurprising given the institutional racism of the Met and the divisive stop-and-search policy they favour in controlling gang violence. Lack of faith in the police’s protective capacity leads to more people carrying weapons, resulting in increased stopping-and-searching, further eroding trust and creating a self-perpetuating cycle of weapon possession and Met repression.
Local and national government institutions also come under fire, with particular onus on austerity and exclusion. Consider this excerpt from Headie One’s “Cold”:
I used to wanna play footy, I used to pray that I get scouted
Daydreamin' in the pub, there's nothin' else to do out 'ere
Because the youth clubs' closin' and the youth offender's crowded
Headie One was a promising footballer before suffering a serious ankle injury. Football, like youth clubs and other community services, keeps young people off the streets, away from the clutches of gangs. Youth resource cuts, as Headie One describes, lead to more young people committing crimes, often having been groomed by gangs.
Research substantiates such claims; between 2014 and 2019, boroughs with the largest cuts to youth services have seen the greatest increases in knife crime. Furthermore, between 2011 and 2019, there was a 51% reduction in authority-supported youth centres in London. Moreover, these statistics predate Covid-19, with the lockdown further reducing access to community services. Such measures contribute to what Barnardos term a ‘poverty of hope’.
“I could’ve been on the pitch doing rainbow flicks [football skills]” (SJ, OFB)
Football, widely accessible and potentially extremely lucrative, offers a route out of poverty, deprivation, and cycles of violence and prosecution. Many gang members are talented footballers who did not make it professionally, resorting to crime as a means of generating human capital. Calvin Bassey, 22, who grew up in a violent part of Newham, joined European football giants Ajax this summer. In his situation, the “two options you have are football or going on the streets [joining a gang, selling drugs, committing violent acts]”. His younger brother, Matthew, once on the books of Watford and Spurs, now goes by “Y.CB”, a member of the “7th” gang. In and out of prison, he was recently shot in the head and stabbed, miraculously surviving. That football – impossibly competitive - or gang activity – incredibly dangerous – are considered the only options for improving one’s life reflects the marginalised, deprived existence of some young, Black Londoners.
“My marj [mother] hates it but my fans don’t (Sorry marj)” (SJ, OFB)
Artists’ commercial success comes from amassing fans; fans want to hear threats and goading; so drill artists load songs with largely embellished versions of events to satisfy them. Fans frequently discuss gang conflict online, constructing a landscape of violence far removed from reality. Peckham-based Zone 2’s song, “No Censor”, opens with the line “If you don’t talk about drills, They [fans] won’t love no more”. Knowing what fans desire, they then name numerous rivals from various gangs who have been killed or injured, despite their gang perpetrating only a portion of the violence. “No Censor” is Zone 2’s most streamed song.
Drill lyrics often contain exaggerated accounts of violence intended to be symbolic, phasic or descriptive of what life is like from whence rappers hail. Characterised by “ambiguity, braggadocio and fact-fiction-hybridity”, the genre gives the excluded a voice to describe their lives, co-opting the violence they witness - or perpetrate - to make money and ultimately leave that world behind.
Problems arise when “street illiterate” police take lyrics literally, using them as evidence in court. At times, rappers who have “self-snitched” have had specific, case-related lyrics used against them in trials. Though this is problematic for freedom of speech and artistic expression, when rappers directly incriminate themselves, one can understand authorities’ eagerness to prosecute. The issue is that authorities have overstepped the mark in censuring rappers. Attacking non-specific, common drill terms, like in the case of Rico Racks being banned from using lyrics like ‘trapping’ (dealing) and ‘connects’ (contacts), constitutes an attempt to stop them from legitimately improving their lot. Likewise, taking references to ambiguous violence as proof of involvement is misdirected and actually counter-productive to achieving justice.
Many drill rappers are professional criminals, largely due to the conditions in which they have grown up. However, creating music, as authorities forget, is art, not a crime. There is scant evidence that drill music incites violence, but plenty of evidence that it improves artists’ lives, perhaps even saving them by facilitating escape from cycles of violence. Rather than dealing with underlying issues of socioeconomic inequality, austerity and lack of social provision, authorities criminalise and subdue rappers re-purposing the violence they witness in an attempt to outrun it.
Bibliography:
Galtung, J., 1969, Violence, Peace, and Peace Research
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https://www.smallgreenshoots.co.uk/drill-music-the-good-the-bad-and-the-misconceptions/
https://airdrive-secure.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/london/dataset/serious-youth violence/2021-12-
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