Exploring the Controversy Surrounding UK Drill Music

Introduction

This anthropology is set to examine the youth subculture that surrounds the rap subgenre of UK drill music which has spread mixed opinions throughout the United Kingdom and especially England’s capital city of London through its violent nature. It is argued by many, however, that drill music is art that represents the livelihoods of many who are living in poverty in Urban Britain in today’s society.

Origins of Drill Music

The UK drill scene originated in the poverty-stricken southern side of Chicago in the early two thousand tens (Fatsis, 2019). Many drill artists were very much ‘underground’ for a significantly long period of time with their music only being talked of “on the streets and through social media, in a network of clubs and parties, and amongst high schools” (Drake, 2012). It wasn’t until two thousand and twelve that drill artist Chief Keef arguably bought this subgenre ‘overground’ by becoming the first drill artist to break into mainstream music with his single ‘I Don’t Like’. By the end of two thousand and twelve global hip-hop star Kanye West had remixed this track causing an influx in popularity eventuating in Chief Keef’s original music video reaching over thirty-four million views on YouTube (Chief Keef, 2012). After the rapid success in Chicago, drill music headed towards its UK counterpart; Brixton. Since the explosion of success, drill music’s fan base grew in its masses none more so than the impoverished ethnic minority youths of South London. With many drill rappers only being in their teens to early twenties and have had a similar upbringing it is easy for their young audience to relate to their music.

Symbolism in Drill Music

Much like many other youth subcultures, drill music has its own aesthetic and items of clothing that can identify them. In this instance, a significant amount of drill musicians and many of their followers wear balaclavas and masks to cover their faces in order to assert themselves a recognizable members of the drill subculture. The idea of drill music being a youth subculture already highlights its deviation from the social norms which in turn comes with a pre-existing negative connotation, alongside this the stereotypical ideologies surrounding balaclavas are even more likely to add to the negative attitudes held by society regarding drill music. In Britain, it is the views of many that balaclavas are only ever worn in order to “intimidate and frighten law-abiding people” (The Irish Times, 2000) this is however not an image that is well received by those in the drilling industry. “Covering up with a balaclava – or in more recent years, a customized mask – has been an integral part of the UK drill scene’s visual aesthetic” (Thapar, 2019) but not for the reasons previously mentioned. Drill musician Drillminister spoke on the idea that he, and many other drill artists, wear balaclavas as “a portrayal of them keeping their identity to themselves so that the music has more power” (Good Morning Britain, 2018). Alongside this, drill rapper S1 commented on how it isn’t always just the artists themselves who cover their faces but many of their followers also wear masks, however, he believes that there are “loads of yutes young people who wear masks and balaclavas, and they’ve got no participation in madness illicit activities. They’re good kids, but they’re trying to be like rappers, so they cover up” (Thapar, 2019). This further highlights the disassociation from the general public as children idolizing mainstream pop stars is seen as common and unproblematic however within the drill scene is described as “thriving on teenage volatility… and introducing them to the music behind the explosion of teenage deaths” (Sergeant, 2018).

The Criminality of Drill Music

Ever since drill music became popular it has always had a reputation for being violent and aggressive; from lyrics to music videos danger has constantly surrounded them. With lyrics such as “leave man cut up and bloody” (Abra Cadabra, 2016) and associated music videos showing offloaded automatic firearms and knives with blades significantly larger than that of the legal limit, it would be difficult not to be seen within a criminological capacity. After drill music’s launch to success within mainstream music it not only became well recognized by the general British youth population but also by that of the higher up’s in the police force, including the Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service Cressida Dick herself. The Metropolitan Police Service very quickly branded drill music as a deviant youth subculture whose platform is used in order to “glamorize gang or drug-selling life, taunt rivals and normalize weapons carrying” (HM Government, 2018) not only that but to “incite or glamorize violence” (Leading Britain’s Conversations, 2018). In an interview with ITV News, former Metropolitan Police Chief Superintendent, Dal Babu, described how drill music is a “catalyst for violence” (ITV News, 2018) and explained how it is used to fuel feuds resulting in serious injuries or death, this is a common theme amongst the many who believe drill music is to blame for “London's wave of violent crime” (Beaumont-Thomas, 2018). Since the rise of drill music, it is an undisputed fact that violent crime has had an astronomical upsurge especially when regarding knife crime. By two thousand and eighteen, knife crime with the threat to kill had almost tripled in comparison to when drill music first became popular in the United Kingdom in two-thousand and twelve (ONS, 2018), many do not believe this is just coincidental. However, coincidence or not, the authorities believed there is a strong enough correlation between the two to severely clamp down on drill music as a whole. The British Government created the Serious Violence Strategy which worked alongside Operation Domain with the primary focus of shutting down any social media platforms and online videos which they believe may “promote gang culture, taunt each other gangs or incite violence” (HM Government, 2018), as a result of this approximately thirty drill music videos have been taken off of YouTube (Waterson, 2018). Given drill music’s young target demographic by removing content from online social media and streaming platforms a large portion of the audience will no longer be able to engage with the violent content that was being portrayed in their content, authorities believe that if violent drill music videos are no longer easily accessible many youths will soon become disinterested with this musical genre. In addition to this, Jim Stokley, Commander of Gangs and Organised Crime at the Metropolitan Police Service felt the removal of some drill-related YouTube videos that overtly linked to particular violent incidents did not go far enough henceforth he led forward with plans that were synonymous with that of the Terrorism Act 2000 where “new measures would mean officers no longer needed to prove that videos and social media posts were linked to specific acts of violence to secure a conviction for incitement to violence” (Simspon, 2018) leading to increasingly more criminal charges placed against drill music artists as there was no longer any need to prove that a specific offence was caused as a result of their music or online publications just that there was an initial ideology of inciting violence. However, the criminological input surrounding drill music doesn’t stop within the online capacity. Brixton-based drill group 410, whose members include two of the most up-and-coming drill artists as of recent Skengdo and AM, were classified as gang members by the Metropolitan Police as their musical activities “including, but not limited to, the production of drill music videos … have amounted to gang-related violence” (Hancox, 2019) which not only resulted in a ban from entering any physical space with a SE11 postcode but also from performing any of their songs which are deemed to have lyrics which are affiliated with gang culture. However, only months later Skengo and AM breached their injunction by performing their hit track Attempted 1.0 which the Metropolitan Police believed “incited and encouraged violence against rival gang members” (BBC News, 2019), this resulted in the first-ever criminal conviction of a nine-month suspended prison sentence for performing a song. Many law enforcement agencies such as the “police chiefs, the Crown Court and the Home Office have all welcomed such iron-fisted, militaristic responses as effective crime-fighting methods” (Fatsis, 2019) however this next section is set to explore drill music through an approach of freedom of speech and expression and how many believe the criminalization will not only silence those who wouldn’t usually get a voice but may also be contributing to the rise even more criminal behavior.

The fight against criminalizing Drill Music

Drill artists have been firmly presented as the ‘Black folk devils’ (Williams, 2014) within the urban criminogenic society of today by everyone from law enforcement to global media outlets, so the question rises why is there still so much support for a seemingly “demonic” (Mararike, Harper and Gilligan, 2018) genre of music? The answer many would give is freedom and expression, to take out the pain and anger and release it as an art form not as an act of revenge or violence.

There is a strong voice within the drill scene advocating for the decriminalization of drill music itself and changing the focus to the reasoning as to why such violence is portrayed both visually and lyrically throughout the genre. There is a strong ideology that runs deep through the drilling community that the culture of gangs and violence already existed before drill music but instead of becoming involved with that lifestyle, they expressed their feeling towards their surroundings as music. Moreover, “banning drill would be a naive and impotent response to addressing the real issues behind gang culture” (Barker, 2019). An extremely large portion of those who participate and listen to drill music are young black males from impoverished conurbations who all they know is what they’ve been surrounded by. Drill artist Konan, from the well, know drill duo Krept and Konan, feels he can strongly resonate with many of the young people who listen to drill or aspire to become a drill artist themselves, he explained how “before music, there was just jail, gangs and getting arrested. Without music, I do not know if I would be alive today. Best-case scenario, I’d be in prison” (Konan, 2019). It is not, however, just those who have experienced the hardships of urban youth culture within today’s society first hand that are fighting against the criminalisation of drill music, this is proved by an open letter aimed towards the Metropolitan Police that has been signed by not only musicians but lawyers, academics, human rights organisations and many more who believe the government and Metropolitan Police are too “focused on tackling the symptoms and not the root causes of black youth disaffection, which is caused by marginalisation, isolation, deprivation and lack of aspiration, born out of a lack of opportunity, inspiration and hope” (The Guardian, 2019; Mohdin, 2019). For many young people from urban communities they are constantly faced with “daily poverty, stretched youth services, exclusionary schools and intergenerational family breakdown” (Thapar, 2019) which leads many to only see and believe in an extremely bleak future for themselves however drill artist Bandokay explained how “music put legal money into his account” (Thapar, 2019) and created a stable and bright future without any need for breaking the law which he never believed possible before. The sense of feeling unable to break the stigma of a certain community without falling into a life of crime bears a striking resemblance with Shaw and McKay’s (1931) Chicago School theory surrounding Urban Zones and how they found that crime rates were significantly higher in areas with “relative socio-economic deprivation” (Newburn, 2013:203), this strongly resonates with many drill songs that “articulate urban worlds as they are seen through the eyes of those who live within these social environments” (Barron, 2013). In addition to this, however, it is not the violent aspects of urban life that appear to attract youth to drill music more the idea of escapism and aspirations of getting away from a one-track life, findings have suggested that drill music tracks with a seemingly positive message throughout attracted a considerably larger amount of views and engagement from fans of theirs than those whose lyrics appeared to be received with negative and violent connotations (Kleinberg and McFarlane, 2019).

Drill Music and Society

As previously discussed, drill music has not been well received by a large portion of the United Kingdom’s demographic due to its rebellious and violent nature placing those who participate and engage with drill music on the same level as “terrorists and traffickers” (Konan, 2019). Drill music is extremely looked down upon due to its distasteful lyrics however this is contradicted heavily by some of Britain’s most loved musicians such as The Beatles who have lyrics such as “I'd rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man” (The Beatles, 1965) which are arguably much more violent than tracks from drill artists such as Dave whose lyrics include “it's a message to a woman with a toxic man, I'm begging you to get support if you're lost or trapped” (Dave, 2019) encouraging women to get out of domestic abuse situations rather than threatening to act upon such actions. It is, however, not historically unlike British society to label music genres comprised of young black males as deviant; today’s societal views surrounding drill music have obvious similarities to that of well-loved jazz music in the nineteen twenties which in that time period was named as “the devil's music” (Hentoff, 1985) which is not unsimilar to current headlines surrounding drill music such as “'demonic' drill rap used to spread the gospel” (Burgess, 2018). Alongside this, jazz music much like the current drill scene was supposed to have a “direct connection with drug use” (Winick, 1959) which populated a large moral panic of the time as a society didn’t believe people linked with drug use and illicit activities should have any part of everyday society however almost a decade later jazz music is still a well-recognized respectable part of society. It is interesting to be reminded of this as it shows how even though society and authorities may conspire to “target, monitor, contain, control and cast out those who it deems undesirable or undeserving of its protection” (Fatsis, 2019) it can still become exceedingly popular once it is accepted within mainstream society and no longer viewed as a youth subculture that has deviated from that of societies expectations. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, the UK drill subculture surrounding rap music has garnered a mixed response from society, particularly due to its violent nature. While some argue that drill music is an art form that reflects the lived experiences of people living in poverty in urban Britain, others see it as a deviant youth subculture that glamorizes gang or drug-selling life, taunts rivals, and normalizes weapons carrying. The use of balaclavas and masks is an integral part of the drill music aesthetic and can identify its members, but it is also associated with negative connotations, particularly in relation to criminality. Although it is challenging to deny that drill music is associated with violence and crime, it is vital to recognize that the genre is not solely responsible for London's wave of violent crime. Many factors contribute to this issue, and it is crucial to address them all to solve the problem effectively. Overall, it is essential to continue examining the role of UK drill music in society, particularly its impact on young people, while also recognizing that it reflects the lived experiences of many who are marginalized in urban Britain.