If you know anything about drill music, then you know its birthplace originated in the harsh streets of South Side Chicago, where rappers such as Chief Keef and Lil Durk rapped over heavy bass and loud trumpet beats, boasting about women, money, and most importantly shootings and drugs.
What separates it from other rap genres is the fast pace gritty snare beat, and content mostly revolving around ‘drillings’ (killings), hence the name.
As the drill wave caught momentum in the US, it made its way to UK in early 2015 where it began to form into its own sub-genre: UK Drill.
Pictured above are the members of 67, who made the UK drill classic ‘Let’s Lurk’, which in UK slang essentially means let’s look for opps (members of an opposite gang) to kill. The man in the mask, 67 member ‘Scribz’ wears a mask as the police issued an order that due to the content of some of his solo songs, he was banned from making music as it ‘promoted gang violence’. He then, as a sort of ‘fuck you’ to the system, put on a mask and rejoined the 67 group as a ‘new’ member: LD.
This was just the start of many quarrels and clashes between UK Drill artists and the police.
Alongside the rise in popularity of drill, there was also a sharp rise in knife crime in the UK, mainly London, which was and still is the hotspot for stabbings as well as producing the most profound UK drill artists.
Knife crime in the UK has become an epidemic, with numbers set to have doubled by 2022 compared to just 7 years ago. One argument which rose as a reason for the epidemic was that UK Drill glamorised gang violence and knife crime, causing youths to turn to the gang life instead of seeking an alternative route. This narrative led to the removal of certain music from artists if they were deemed of doing the latter, but quickly escalated to the UK Parliament pushing YouTube to remove several drill videos, and police forcing many artists and groups such as the famous ‘1011’ drill group to disband and quit music.
This decision was later overturned due to much protest, spearheaded by international UK musical duo Krept and Konan, who visited Parliament and campaigned for them to rethink their decision.
Their logic was, drill did not glamorise or promote gang violence, but was merely a way for artists to express the environment and conditions they grew up in.
By banning drill, the government were forcing the artists to turn back to a life of crime, instead of allowing them to pursue music and do better for themselves and their communities. This was further shown in the short film they produced titled ‘Ban Drill’, which depicts the impact the ban had on a young aspiring rapper.
By then UK Drill had hit mainstream news headlines, with one side pushing for regulation on it, whilst the other saying that its just a reflection of the ‘brushed under the carpet’ reality of the UK, and banning it will only make things worse for those who could use music to escape the cycle of crime and poverty.
Personally, I believe that neither side is wrong, as this problem is much deeper than music. Drill has glamorised the gang lifestyle in some way, with all the cars, money and women used in videos being an obvious appeal to the youth, particularly those in lower classes who may be unsure of what path to choose in life.
However, to say that lyrics about stabbing someone is going to make me go out and act it out the next day is absurd, in the same way a violent video game doesn’t make me act out what I see in real life. I think that the ban drill campaign merely used drill as a convenient scapegoat, instead of tackling the real problem of gang violence: Poverty and lack of education.
Instead of looking at drill in a negative light, look at it in a positive light that despite the content they rap about, artists are finding a new path for themselves, bettering their situations and enabling to them to give back and tackle problems in their own communities.
Knife and gang crime will not go away, but with investment ranging from parliament to the local estate’s rapper, one can provide opportunities for those who would’ve taken a different path in life.
A dark, violent path, reflected in the music of the drill artists that create the now tidal wave that is UK Drill.
