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What is Drill Rap? Eric Adams wants to ban violent MVs, Internet calls it a 'dumb solution'

The NYC mayor makes this plea after his speech about the life and death of 18-year-old drill rapper Chii Wvttz who was gunned down in Bedford-Stuyvesant

A day after giving an emotional speech on the death of 18-year-old drill rapper Jayquan McKenley, aka Chii Wvttz, New York City Mayor Eric Adams voiced his concern towards the violence that is glorified and promoted by drill rap. Chii was shot and killed in Bedford-Stuyvesant in the first week of February. In a press conference, held on Friday, February 11 the former police officer shared that earlier he had no idea of drill rap but he got to know it after his son shared a few videos with him.
 
A lot of rappers in the last few years lost their lives after they were shot and killed. Artist VNZA was murdered in Missouri back in June. Brooklyn rapper Supa Gates too faced a similar fate after he was shot multiple times at St John’s Place near Troy Avenue in Crown Heights on April 11. Chicago rapper KTS Dre too made the headlines after he was shot 64 times on his head and other parts of his body in July 2021. Bay Area rapper Mike Darole was another hip-hop artist who was fatally shot during an attempted robbery in May 2021. A Chicago drill rapper named Edai too was shot and killed after he was shot six times.
 
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What is Drill Rap?

Drill rap is a sub-genre of hip-hop that is defined by its dark, violent and explicit lyrics infused with influenced beats. Lil Durk, Lil Reese, Fredo Santana, Young Chop, G Herbo, Lil Bibby, Chief Keef are some of the top drill rappers. The artists releasing drill music have been frequently noted for their style of lyricism and association with crime in Chicago. The sub-genre reportedly first started making waves in the UK around 2012. It soon reached the shores of the US and went big in regional scenes such as Australian, Spanish, Irish, Dutch and Brooklyn drill.
 

‘I had no idea what drill rapping was’

With an intention to ban the drill music videos on social media platforms, the New York City Mayor in the press conference said, as reported by Complex, “I had no idea what drill rapping was but I called my son, and he sent me some videos, and it is alarming. We are going to pull together the social media companies, and sit down with them, and state that you have a civic and corporate responsibility.”

He then compared the violent music videos to the tweets posted by former president Donald Trump. The former POTUS was banned from Twitter following last year’s insurrection at the United States Capitol. “We pulled Trump off twitter because of what he was spewing, yet we are allowing music, displaying of guns, violence, we are allowing it to stay on the site, because look at the victims”. He added, “We’re bringing them in, we’re going to show exactly what is being displayed, and we are alarmed by it. We are alarmed by the use of social media to really over-proliferate this violence in our communities.”

‘What a dumb solution’, says Twitter

Reacting to Eric Adams’ remarks on drill rap, one user said, “Worry about the chaos up in Rikers island and housing all the homeless sleeping on the subway seats first.. priorities.” Another trolled the mayor saying, “This would literally be impossible what if everyone just posted drill.” The next one said, “What a dumb solution” whereas, another added, “This would be a serious First Amendment violation, and the courts would reverse this in a heartbeat if he did it. Plus, that would be far beyond a mayor's authority, anyway. I can't stand when mayors think they're gods.” One user tweeted, “Drill rap they still getting active without music it's a lifestyle” as another concluded, “There's more violence on the news then in a song or a video game.”