Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T23:01:17.932Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Copping the blame: the role of YouTube videos in the criminalisation of UK drill music

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2022

Tilman Schwarze Open the ORCID record for Tilman Schwarze [Opens in a new window]  and
Lambros Fatsis Open the ORCID record for Lambros Fatsis [Opens in a new window]
Tilman Schwarze
Affiliation:
School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK E-mail: [email protected]
Lambros Fatsis
Affiliation:
School of Humanities and Social Science, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

UK drill music frequently features as a prime suspect in newsrooms and courtrooms that charge it with driving the ‘knife crime epidemic’ in Britain's major conurbations. Such prejudicial assumptions about the role of drill in inciting violence are largely unfounded, but nevertheless inform criminal justice policy that leads to unjust and discriminatory outcomes. While drill rappers consciously post violent content on YouTube to increase viewership and gain popularity, the role of YouTube in facilitating and profiting from this traffic in violent imagery is rarely questioned in criminal proceedings – enabling, as it does, the weaponisation of such videos as ‘bad character evidence’ in court. Drawing on a selection of YouTube videos that represent drill rappers as dangerous ‘criminals’, this article argues that such videos function as a resource for the criminalisation of drill by police and prosecutors who present drill lyrics as personal testimony that is robbed of its fictive qualities, and makes rappers vulnerable to prejudicial ruling and discriminatory treatment within the criminal justice system.

Type
Article
Information
Popular Music , Volume 41 , Special Issue 4: Prosecuting and Policing Rap , December 2022 , pp. 463 - 480
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Airoldi, M., Beraldo, D., and Gandini, A. 2016. ‘Following the algorithm: an exploratory investigation of music on YouTube’, Poetics, 57, pp. 1–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrews, K. 2016. ‘The problem of political blackness: lessons from the Black Supplementary School Movement’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 39/11, pp. 2060–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Auletta, K. 2018. Frenemies: The Epic Disruption of the Advertising Industry (and Why This Matters) (London, HarperCollins)Google Scholar
Bednarek, M. 2006. Evaluation in Media Discourse: Analysis of a Newspaper Corpus (London, Continuum)Google Scholar
Bloch-Wehba, H. 2022. ‘Content moderation as surveillance’, Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 36, in press. SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3872915Google Scholar
Boyle, S. 2021. ‘Soundtrack to murder’, Daily Mail, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9585461/Soundtrack-murder-time-gangland-drill-track-Number-One.html (accessed 20 July 2021)Google Scholar
Burgess, J., and Green, J. 2018. YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture (London, Wiley & Sons)Google Scholar
Carrigan, M., and Fatsis, L. 2021. The Public and their Platforms: Public Sociology in an Era of Social Media (Bristol, Bristol University Press)Google Scholar
Clarke, B., and Williams, P. 2020. ‘(Re)producing guilt in suspect communities: the centrality of racialisation in joint enterprise prosecutions’, International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 9, pp. 116–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, S. 1971. Images of Deviance (London, Penguin)Google Scholar
Conquergood, D. 2005. ‘Street literacy’, in Handbook of Research on Teaching Literacy Through the Communicative and Visual Arts, ed. Flood, J., Heath, S. and Lapp, D. (London, Routledge), pp. 354–75Google Scholar
CPS, Decision Making in Gang Related Offences, https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/gang-related-offences-decision-making (accessed 20 July 2021)Google Scholar
Davies, S. 2021. ‘The controversial music that is the sound of global youth’, BBC, https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20210607-the-controversial-music-that-is-the-sound-of-global-youth (accessed 20 September 2021)Google Scholar
Dearden, L. 2018. ‘Police targeting drill music videos in controversial crackdown on social media that “incites violence”’, The Independent. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/drill-music-stabbings-london-youtube-violence-police-knife-crime-gangs-a8373241.html (accessed 4 August 2021)Google Scholar
Dennis, A.L. 2007. ‘Poetic (in)justice? Rap music lyrics as art, life, and criminal evidence’, The Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts, 31, pp. 1–41Google Scholar
Dunbar, A., and Kubrin, C.E. 2018. ‘Imagining violent criminals: an experimental investigation of music stereotypes and character judgments’, Journal of Experimental Criminology 14/4, pp. 507–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, J. 2020. ‘“We [mostly] carry guns for the Internet”: visibility, labour, social hacking and chasing digital clout by black male youth in Chicago's drill rap scene’, Global Hip Hop Studies, 1/2, pp. 227–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fatsis, L. 2019a. ‘Grime: criminal subculture or public counterculture? A critical investigation into the criminalization of Black musical subcultures in the UK’, Crime Media Culture 15/3, pp. 447–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fatsis, L. 2019b. ‘Policing the beats: the criminalisation of UK drill and grime music by the London Metropolitan Police’, The Sociological Review, 67/6, pp. 1300–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fatsis, L. 2019c. ‘Thinking about knife crime beyond dangerous myths and comfortable untruths’, The British Society of Criminology Blog, https://thebscblog.wordpress.com/2019/02/11/Thinking-about-knife-crime-beyond-dangerous-myths-and-comfortable-untruths/Google Scholar
Fatsis, L. 2021a. ‘Policing the Union's Black: the racial politics of law and order in contemporary Britain’, in Leading Works in Law and Social Justice, ed. Gordon, F., and Newman, D. (London, Routledge), pp. 137–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fatsis, L. 2021b. ‘Sounds dangerous: Black music subcultures as victims of state regulation and social control’, in Harm and Disorder in the Urban Space: Social Control, Sense and Sensibility, ed. Peršak, N., and Di Ronco, A. (London, Routledge), pp. 30–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fatsis, L. 2021c. ‘Stop blaming drill for making people kill’, The British Society of Criminology Blog. https://thebscblog.wordpress.com/2021/10/18/stop-blaming-drill-for-making-people-kill/ (accessed 29 March 2022)Google Scholar
Fatsis, L., and Lamb, M. 2021. Policing the Pandemic: How Public Health Becomes Public Order (Bristol, Policy Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fatsis, L., Ilan, J., Kadiri, H., Owusu-Bempah, A., Quinn, E., Shiner, M., and Squires, P. 2021. ‘Missing the point: how policy exchange misunderstands knife crime in the capital’, Identities Blog. https://www.identitiesjournal.com/blog-collection/missing-the-point-how-policy-exchange-misunderstands-knife-crime-in-the-capital (accessed 29 March 2022)Google Scholar
Ferrell, J., Hayward, K., and Young, K. 2008. Cultural Criminology. An Invitation (London, Sage)Google Scholar
Fischoff, S.P. 1999. ‘Gangsta’ rap and a murder in Bakersfield’, Journal of Applied Social Psychology 29/4, pp. 795–805CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraser, A., and Atkinson, C. 2014. ‘Making up gangs: looping, labelling and the new politics of intelligence-led policing’. Youth Justice, 14/2, pp. 154–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fried, C.B. 1999. ‘Who's afraid of rap: differential reactions to music lyrics’, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29/4, pp. 705–21Google Scholar
Garden Court Chambers. 2020. ‘Drill music, gangs and prosecutions – challenging racist stereotypes in the criminal justice system’. Webinar Series. https://www.gardencourtchambers.co.uk/events/drill-music-gangs-and-prosecutions-challenging-racist-stereotypes-in-the-criminal-justice-system (accessed 4 Arpil 2021)Google Scholar
Garland, D. 2002. The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society (Oxford, Oxford University Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilroy, P. 1987. ‘The myth of black criminality’, in Law, Order and the Authoritarian State: Readings in Critical Criminology, ed. Scraton, P. (London, Open University Press), pp. 47–56Google Scholar
Gunter, A. 2017. Race, Gangs and Youth Violence: Policy, Prevention and Policing (Bristol, Policy Press)Google Scholar
Gunter, A., and Watt, P. 2009. ‘Grafting, going to college and working on road: Youth transitions and cultures in an East London neighbourhood’, Journal of Youth Studies, 12/5, pp. 515–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, S. 1993. ‘What is this “Black” in Black popular culture?’, Social Ju stice, 20/1–2, pp. 104–14Google Scholar
Hall, S. 1975. Africa is Alive and Well and Living in the Diaspora (Paris, UNESCO)Google Scholar
Hallsworth, S., and Young, T. 2008. ‘Gang talk and gang talkers: a critique’, Crime Media Culture, 4, pp. 175–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HM Government. 2018. Serious Violence Strategy. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/serious-violence-strategy (accessed 6 August 2021)Google Scholar
Hulley, S., and Young, T. 2021. ‘Silence, joint enterprise and the legal trap’, Criminology & Criminal Justice; https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895821991622CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ilan, J. 2020. ‘Digital street culture decoded: why criminalizing drill music is street illiterate and counterproductive’, British Journal of Criminology, 60, pp. 994–1013CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irwin-Rogers, K., and Pinkney, C. 2017. ‘Social media as a catalyst and trigger for youth violence,’ Catch22, https://www.catch-22.org.uk/social-media-as-a-catalyst-and-trigger-for-youth-violence/Google Scholar
Katz, J. 1988. Seductions of Crime: The Moral and Sensual Attractions of Doing Evil (New York, Basic Books)Google Scholar
Kelley, R.D.G. 1994. Race Rebels: Culture, Politics and the Black Working Class (New York, Free Press)Google Scholar
Kelley, R.D.G. 2008. Yo’ Mama's Disfunktional: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America (Boston, MA Beacon Press)Google Scholar
Kim, J. 2012. ‘The institutionalization of YouTube: from user-generated content to professionally generated content’, Media, Culture & Society, 34/1, pp. 53–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, S. 2018, April 20. ‘The soundtrack to London's murders’, The New Yorker. www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/the-soundtrack-to-londons-murders (accessed 21 November 2018)Google Scholar
Krims, A. 2000. Rap Music and the Poetics of Identity (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar
Kubrin, C.E., and Nielson, E. 2014. ‘Rap on trial’, Race and justice, 4/3, pp. 185–211CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lammy Review. 2017. ‘An independent review of the treatment of and outcomes for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic individuals in the criminal justice system’. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/643001/lammy-review-final-report.pdf (accessed 28 August 2021)Google Scholar
Lanier, J. 2018. Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now (New York, Henry Holt)Google Scholar
Lee, B.X. 2016. ‘Causes and cures VII: Structural violence’, Aggression and Violent Behavior, 28, pp. 109–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lerner, J.I., and Kubrin, C.E. 2021. ‘Rap on trial: a legal guide for attorneys’, UC Irvine School of Law Research Paper, no. 2021-35Google Scholar
Lutes, E., Purdon, J., and Fradella, H.F. 2019. ‘When music takes the stand: A content analysis of how courts use and misuse rap lyrics in criminal cases’, American Journal of Criminal Law, 46/1, pp. 77–132Google Scholar
Lynes, A., Kelly, C., and Kelly, E. 2020. ‘Thug life: drill music as periscope into urban violence in the consumer age’, British Journal of Criminology 60, pp. 1201–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marwick, A.E. 2013. Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity, and Branding in the Social Media Age (New Haven, CT, Yale University Press).Google Scholar
Maylor, U. 2009. ‘What is the meaning of “Black”? Researching “black” respondents’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 32/2, pp. 369–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mohdin, A. 2021. ‘Tion Wayne and Russ Millions’ Body is first drill song to go to UK No 1’, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/may/07/tion-wayne-and-russ-millions-body-is-first-drill-song-to-go-to-uk-no-1 (accessed 5 August 2021)Google Scholar
Monahan, T. 2010. Surveillance in the Time of Insecurity (New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press)Google Scholar
Nielson, E., and Dennis, A.L. 2019. Rap on Trial Race, Lyrics, and Guilt in America (New York, New Press)Google Scholar
Owusu-Bempah, A. 2017. ‘Race and policing in historical context: dehumanization and the policing of Black people in the 21st century’, Theoretical Criminology, 21/1, pp. 23–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owusu-Bempah, A. 2020. ‘Part of art or part of life? Rap lyrics in criminal trials’, LSE Blogs. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/rap-lyrics-in-criminal-trials/ (accessed 24 July 2021)Google Scholar
Owusu-Bempah, A. 2022. ‘The irrelevance of rap’, Criminal Law Review, 2 (in press)Google Scholar
Paul, S. 2021. Tackling Racial Injustice: Children and the Youth Justice System: A Report by JUSTICE (London, Justice)Google Scholar
Perry, I. 2004. Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop (Durham, NC, Duke University Press)Google Scholar
Phillips, C., Earle, R., Parmar, A. et al. 2020. ‘Dear British criminology: where has all the race and racism gone?’, Theoretical Criminology, 24/3, pp. 427–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinn, E. 2005. Nuthin’ But a G Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap (New York, Columbia University Press)Google Scholar
Quinn, E. 2018. ‘Lost in translation? Rap music and racial bias in the courtroom’, Policy@Manchester Blogs. http://blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/posts/2018/10/lost-in-translation-rap-music-and-racial-bias-in-the-courtroom/ (accessed 24 July 2021)Google Scholar
Richardson, J. 2007. Analysing Newspapers. An Approach from Critical Discourse Analysis (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan)Google Scholar
Rose, T. 1996. ‘Hidden politics: discursive and institutional policing of rap music’, in Droppin' Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture, ed. Perskins, W.E. (Philadelphia, PA, Temple University Press), pp. 236–57Google Scholar
Rose, T. 2008. The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop – and Why It Matters (New York, Basic Books)Google Scholar
Schwarze, T. 2021. ‘Discursive practices of territorial stigmatization: how newspapers frame violence and crime in a Chicago community’, Urban Geography. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2021.1913015Google Scholar
Sexton, J. 2010. ‘People-of-color-blindness: notes on the afterlife of slavery’, Social Text, 28/2: 31–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smithson, H., Ralphs, R., and Williams, P. 2013. ‘Used and abused: the problematic usage of gang terminology in the United Kingdom and its implications for ethnic minority youth’, British Journal of Criminology, 53/1, pp. 113–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Srnicek, N. 2017. Platform Capitalism (London, Polity)Google Scholar
Squires, P. 2009. ‘The knife crime “epidemic” and British politics’, British Politics 4/1, pp. 127–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stoia, N., Adams, K., and Drakulich, K. 2018. ‘Rap lyrics as evidence: what can music theory tell us?’, Race and Justice, 8/4, pp. 330–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuart, F. 2020. Ballad of the Bullet: Gangs, Drill Music and the Power of Online Infamy (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press)Google Scholar
The Guardian 2019. Stop criminalising our musicians. Letters. www.theguardian.com/law/2019/feb/03/stop-criminalising-our-musicians (accessed 5 July 2021).Google Scholar
The Sunday Times Magazine. 2019. ‘The knife crime rap: everything you should know about drill music’, The Sunday Times Magazine, 5 May, p. 1Google Scholar
Tufekci, Z. 2013. ‘“Not this one”: social movements, the attention economy, and microcelebrity networked activism’, American Behavioral Scientist 57/7, pp. 848–70Google Scholar
Ward, T., and Fouladvand, S. 2021. ‘Bodies of knowledge and robes of expertise: expert evidence about drugs, gangs and human trafficking’, Criminal Law Review, 6, pp. 442–60Google Scholar
Williams, P. 2014. ‘Criminalising the other: challenging the race–gang nexus’, Race & Class, 56/3, pp. 18–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, P., and Clarke, B. 2016. ‘Dangerous associations: joint enterprise, gangs and racism’, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/publications/dangerous-associations-joint-enterprise-gangs-and-racism (accessed 17 August 2021)Google Scholar
Williams, P., and Clarke, B. 2018. ‘The Black criminal other as an object of social control’, Social Sciences, 7/234, pp. 1–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, E., and Squires, P. 2021. Rethinking Knife Crime Policing, Violence and Moral Panic? (London, Palgrave)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young Review. 2014. ‘Improving outcomes for young Black and/or Muslim men in the criminal justice system’, http://www.youngreview.org.uk/sites/default/files/clinks_young-review_report_dec2014.pdf (accessed 28 August 2021)Google Scholar
Zuboff, S. 2019. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the new Frontier of Power (London, Profile Books)Google Scholar
Cheetah, https://www.youtube.com/c/CheetahDrill/videosGoogle Scholar
DrillDon, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCctk9S3bP6mekwU4cZnfD4Q/videosGoogle Scholar
Drillas, https://www.youtube.com/c/Drillas/videosGoogle Scholar
UK Drill Mile, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdokwKCk9ThYRDWXdkxzCuw/videosGoogle Scholar
Ydottyz Drill News, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvh4woiwlHgc3fNYIBuhSRw/videosGoogle Scholar
UK Drill Tv, https://www.youtube.com/c/UKDrillNews/videosGoogle Scholar
BEEPEE UK, https://www.youtube.com/c/BEEPEEUK/videosGoogle Scholar
YGM, https://www.youtube.com/c/YGMUKDRILL/videosGoogle Scholar
Cheetah, https://www.youtube.com/c/CheetahDrill/videosGoogle Scholar
DrillDon, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCctk9S3bP6mekwU4cZnfD4Q/videosGoogle Scholar
Drillas, https://www.youtube.com/c/Drillas/videosGoogle Scholar
UK Drill Mile, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdokwKCk9ThYRDWXdkxzCuw/videosGoogle Scholar
Ydottyz Drill News, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvh4woiwlHgc3fNYIBuhSRw/videosGoogle Scholar
UK Drill Tv, https://www.youtube.com/c/UKDrillNews/videosGoogle Scholar
BEEPEE UK, https://www.youtube.com/c/BEEPEEUK/videosGoogle Scholar
YGM, https://www.youtube.com/c/YGMUKDRILL/videosGoogle Scholar