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Drilling Down: an Analysis of Drill Music in Relation to Race and Policing

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Drilling Down: an Analysis of Drill Music in Relation to Race and Policing RACE AND POLICING FORUM Drilling down: an analysis of drill music in relation to race and policing - Kieran Reidy - The views and opinions expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not reflect the clinic’s policy or viewpoint on any of the issues raised. In this essay, I will attempt to examine the relationship between race and policing through the lens of drill music. Scrutinising the surveillance, suppression and out-right criminalisation of this genre can begin to expose unfair treatment by the police. This treatment will be illustrated as an extension of the over-policing of Black youth. It will be argued that the criminalisation of this subgenre aides the reproduction of racialised stereotypes of young Black boys as dangerous criminals whom the justice system must deal with1. Thus, I will breakdown the apparent ‘connection’ between violence and drill music. This essay will argue that drill aims to reflects the violent environment of inner-city life. Lastly, it will explore how drill offers a window into the lives of Black youth, showcasing deprivation and a lack of employment opportunities as stronger factors behind youth violence than drill music. Drill: a brief overview Drill is trap music, a subgenre of the better-known genre ‘Hip-Hop’. It originates from the streets of Chicago. Since 2012, its rhythmic beats and gritty lyrics has moved to UK, where it has grown in prominence. It is heavily shaped by its environment; born on the streets in poor neighbourhoods, it aims to give voice to the tough life of the inner city. Drill artists and crews carry out music videos in front of housing estates and sports cars, in tracksuits, designer clothing and often with ‘ballys’ (balaclavas). The dynamics of drill means that a reputation of violence needs to be secured, meaning drill lyrics can often involve threats and boasts of violence in a bid to gain ‘street authenticity’ from those within the scene and the audience. This dynamic can be hard for outsiders to understand, and unnerves the authorities, who, as will be demonstrated throughout this essay, take it literally and attempt to control in authoritative manner. The policing of black music Drill music is the latest in a long, unfortunate trail of Black musical subgenres that have been heavily policed and criminalised in the UK2. Early examples include raids on venues playing reggae and ska music3. In recent years, Grime has been subjected to punitive action in the shape of the controversial Risk Assessment Form 696. This form only requested information about events where ‘bashment, garage and R’n’B’ were being played (largely Black- dominated genres) and required the organisers of events to specify the make-up of the 1 Lambros Fatsis, ‘Grime: Criminal subculture or public counterculture? A critical investigation into the criminalization of Black musical subcultures in the UK’ (2019) 15(3), 447–461 Crime, Media, Culture https://doi.org/10.1177/1741659018784111 accessed 10/08/2020 2 Peter Fryer, Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain (Pluto 1984) 3 Paul Gilroy, There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack. (Routledge 1987) ‘target audience’ 4. Despite changes to the 2009-11 Form, it was still discriminatory5. This was a racist attempt to control ‘Black’ music and stop its success. Later, the Metropolitan Police Authority recognised the form’s discriminatory nature6 and its use has since ceased. Even still, academics7 point out how despite the evidence stacked up against this Form as discriminatory, an apology was not forthcoming by the Met Police, a common trait in its relationship with the black community when it gets it wrong. Drill is the latest subgenre to be penalised, and its treatment has been unsurprising. A tough- on-crime approach has been pursued by the Police, believing drill is causing a rise of serious youth violence in London8. Operation Domain has been launched, involving the monitoring and shutting down of drill music videos uploaded to YouTube. So far, 130 videos have been removed, whilst over 2000 videos are being monitored resulting in 20 convictions9. The Police have likened this tracking of drill videos to that used against terrorists, as a sort of boast. All this pooling and tracking of videos is done ‘without any proof that the targeted music videos were linked to specific acts of violence’10. Unless of course that proof is based upon a racialised assumption that young black men must be violent. Not settling on just censoring these videos, the Met Police have also targeted drill artists with Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs) under the Anti-social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014. CBOs impose a range of limitations on movement and association11. Recently, crew 101112 and artists Skengdo and AM have been handed CBOs. Interestingly, as noted by 4 London Metropolitan Police Service (2008). Promotion Event Risk Assessment Form 696, pp. 1, 3 5 London Metropolitan Police Service (2009). Promotion Event Risk Assessment Form 696, p. 2 6 Metropolitan Police Authority (2009). Developing From 696. Retrieved from http://policeauthority.org/ metropolitan/committees/cep/2009/091112/09/index.html . 7 Lambros Fatsis, ‘Policing the beats: The criminalisation of UK drill and grime music by the London Metropolitan Police’ (2019) 67(6) 130013 The Sociological Review https://doi.org/ 10.1177/0038026119842480 accessed 13/08/20 8 Sean Morrison, ‘gang members “to be treated like terror suspects” under new measures to tackle violence’ (Evening Standard, 30th May 2018) https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/london-gang- members-to-be-treated-like-terror-suspects-under-new-measures-to-tackle-violent-crime- a3850626.html 9 Jim Edwards, ‘YouTube deleted 130 rap videos to help police fight street gangs responsible for thousands of stabbings’ (Business Insider, 29th June 2019) https://www.businessinsider.com/uk-drill- rap-videos-banned-by-police-2019-6?r=US&IR=T 10 Dan Hancox, ‘The Drill and Knife Crime Story Is a Classic Chicken-and-Egg Dilemma’ (Vice, 31st May 2018) https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/nek3qm/drill-knife-crime-violence-london-long-read 11 Lizzie Dearden, ‘Police targeting drill music videos in controversial crackdown on social that ‘incites violence’ (Independent, 29TH May 2018) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/drill-music- stabbings-london-youtube-violence-police-knife-crime-gangs-a8373241.html 12 Shereener Browne & Anthony Hudson QC, ‘Kill Drill: The death of freedom of expression’ (IndexOnCensorship, 19th June 2018) http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2018/06/kill-drill- the-death-of-freedom-of-expression/#1 academic Lambros Fatis, this was handed to the artists after allegedly inciting violence against rival gangs, meaning drill group 410 were classified as a gang under the Policing and Crime Act 2009. A group of musicians equated to a gang, for what reason? Academics and lawyers have long criticised this approach as an unfair suppression of artistic expression13. Linking violence to drill gangs The authorities have long settled on their standpoint that drill music is synonymous with violence and fuels violent youth crime. Cressida Dick has openly argued this very point14, whilst the media have linked drill directly to gangs15, as have the judiciary16. Drill music is in the dock and if you were to prosecute it you would cry out that violence pervades every fibre of its being. Music videos aim to be intimidating, often featuring large groups of youth dressed in hoods, tracksuits and balaclavas. Some videos possess groups who would not have looked out of place in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Lyrics are undoubtedly violent; ‘Dip’, ‘ching’ and ‘chef’ (slang for stabbing) appear numerously throughout songs, let alone the whole of the subgenre (listen to Harlem Spartans song Jugg and you will get a flavour). Threats of violence and taunts are commonplace throughout the subgenre and have had devasting consequences. For example, drillers Nino and KK, connected to the B- Side gang, were arrested for the murder of a producer connected to a rival drill crew ‘Splash’17. This could be held aloft as a definitive example that drill music escalates gang tensions. In another example, drill artist M Trap 0 was arrested for the killing of Jermaine Goupall in which he predicted this act in a song18. Again, this could be evidenced that threats in drill songs are not empty ones and should be dealt with seriously. Some academic research has illustrated how drill music can inflate tensions as taunts and threats can be shared and viewed multiple times, thus leading to real-life consequences 13‘Stop criminalising our musicians’ (Guardian, 3rd February 2019) https://www.theguardian.com/law/ 2019/feb/03/stop-criminalising-our-musicians 14 Nick Ferrari, ‘Britain's most senior police officer has called on social media companies to remove controversial drill music videos to help reduce gang crime in London’ (LBC, 18TH May 2018) https:// www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/nick-ferrari/met-police-chief-calls-on-youtube-drill-music/ 15 Harriet Sergeant, ‘Drill, the brutal rap that fuels gang murder’ (The Spectator, 12TH April 2018) https://harrietsergeant.com/2018/04/14/drill-the-brutal-rap-that-fuels-gang-murder/ 16 Telegraph Reporters, ‘YouTube drill music is to blame for escalating gang violence, judge says’ (The Telegraph, 3rd May 2018) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/03/youtube-drill- music-blame-escalating-gang-violence-judge-says/ 17 Mike Sullivan, ‘Youtube Rappers Caged’ (The Sun, 30th November 2017) https://www.thesun.co.uk/ news/5032913/youtube-rappers-sentenced-murder-of-dean-pascal-modeste/ 18 Nadeem Badshah, ‘Three jailed for life for stabbing teenager to death in south London’ (Guardian, 15th February 2018) https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/15/three-jailed-stabbing-teenager-south-london- jermaine-goupall such as fatalities.
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