Mayor Eric Adams "is pushing NYPD stigma against drill" say New York music scene

NYC’s newly elected mayor Eric Adams is being criticised by the music scene that he is “pushing the NYPD stigma against drill music”.

Earlier in February, the Mayor asked for a "clamp down" on drill music videos on social media channels such as YouTube. He implied that this violence seen in videos perpetuates violence seen in local communities.

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“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 said in a February 11 press conference.

Adams also said he was “alarmed by the use of social media” by drill rappers before blaming the music for “contributing to the violence we are seeing all over this country.”

Adams says that he was made aware of the genre of music when his son who works for Roc Nation sent him videos.

According to NBC New York, there are currently 37% more shootings than the same period in 2021. On average, four people are shot in the city every day.

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Matthew Allen, from Black culture news site TheGrio, told NME that Adam’s comments were “another example of people condemning Black music and rap music in general.”

”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.”

Recently, many of the city’s killings have been linked back to the drill scene - according to XXL Bronx drill rapper C-Hii Wvttz and Brooklyn drill artist Tdott Woo were both shot and killed in February.

In January, Nas Blixky was shot in the head and leg. Rapper Kay Flock is in jail after being charged with murder as of December 2021.

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Earlier this month, a group of NYC rappers - including Fivio Foreign, Maino, B-Lovee, Slow Bucks, and Bleezy - met with the mayor to “create a conversation”.

They discussed public safety in the city and the issues that are impacting the drill and hip hop communities, such as gun violence.

Maino said: “There’s been a lot of talk about drill rap, drill music in New York City, connecting violence with the culture, and I just wanted to create a conversation with the mayor.

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The UK drill music scene has also been having a contentious relationship with the police recently. It was revealed in an FOI report sent by VICE that the Met Police is working with YouTube to remove drill videos.

Data obtained via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, show that the Met have referred for 510 music videos to be taken down from YouTube in 2021, with 96.7% of requests being accepted.

In 2020, 125 referrals made, resulting in 124 removals; the year before that shows 110 videos were referred and 107 removed.

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[Via: NME]

Aneesa Ahmed is Mixmag's Digital Intern, follow her on Twitter