After two local Brooklyn drill rappers were murdered as a result of gun violence, Mayor Eric Adams has declared a war on drill rap.
He expressed his concerns about the genre of music while simultaneously blaming social media companies for allowing the display of such violence on their platforms.
In a press conference held on February 11 he stated “We pulled Trump off Twitter, because of what he was spewing. Yet we’re allowing music, displaying of guns, violence. We’re allowing it to stay on these sites.” He’s begun to push the NYPD to stigmatize against drill music.
Other officials however have expressed contrary beliefs on the matter. NYPD Deputy Chief Joseph Gulotta told the New York Daily News that he doesn’t see a direct correlation between the music and the several recent killings. He states “These are gang shootings. I think sometimes rap and the lyrics ignite, cause some issues. But I don’t think that’s the underlying motive at the end of the day.”
Entertainment writer of TheGrio, Matthew Allen also expressed his concerns of the genre of music not being the direct issue. He goes on to say “anytime somebody tries to spotlight music as what’s wrong with society that’s nothing more than gaslighting and trying to deter from dealing with the real problem.”
Earlier this week I sat down with a local drill rapper in my community who goes by the name Dover Heem and discussed his views on the music itself and overall take of the situation. I first asked him how he would define “drill rap” to which he defined the genre as being made to express what people go through in the “hood.” He says the lyrics consist of experience and opinionated based lyrics that do have a violent underlying tone to it.
After asking if he felt as though the content of drill music promotes gun violence he went on to say “That question is kind of like yes and no for me. I say this because at the end of the day lyrics are just lyrics. But when you begin to start making music videos waving guns and weapons around that’s when it becomes a problem. Gun violence is already there, it’s its own problem that needs to be dealt with. We can’t put it all on music.”
When asked if he felt banning the genre of music would help curb violence he answered by saying that beats play a big role in what makes drill music drill music, so banning the genre won’t stop someone from getting on another type of beat and rap the same type of lyrics. So essentially no. He also feels that people are already into what they’re into, the music didn’t start any “beef” or problems, it was already there, the music is just a way for them to further shed light on these already established problems.
Earlier this month Mayor Adams sat down with several NYC rappers to address his alarming concerns with drill music. Some of the rappers in attendance included Fivio Foreign, B-Lovee, and Maino. The purpose of this sit down was to create real dialogue, get the perspectives of both sides, and essentially dive into some ways it can be rectified.
Additionally, a conversation about what is really going on within the community in terms of poverty, police laws, and real programs geared toward minority communities was held as well.
At the conclusion of the meeting, NYS Assembly candidate Hercules E. Reid went on to say “one message was clear, we have to work together to keep our city safe. We need to provide jobs, resources, and real to the communities living in poverty if we are ever going to reshape negative narratives on our culture that we love.”
While nothing is certain yet, the one thing that remains clear on behalf of both parties is that changes need to be made within the black community in order to lessen to violence they are subjected to.