The key to being a successful Drill rapper? Rap yourself into prison
Young rappers are finding themselves behind bars, all thanks to the music and lyrics they produce.
Drill music is the latest branch of rap music sweeping the nation. Its gestation as a genre has been met with widespread conviction and negative press, mostly because of the regularly violent lyrics and constant references to drugs and weaponry. Upon first listen, many will likely rip out their headphones with disgust, and probably surprise, that drill is even classed as music. But trust me, it is, and it’s here to stay. Those making the music are becoming incredibly wealthy, incredibly quickly. But these young artists don’t seem to want to be around too long; they appear to have a desire to wind up in prison.
Now why on earth would a sane young artist ‘want’ to spend a lovely relaxing period of time in a prison cell. In all seriousness, I’m sure they don’t. But bear with me, because by delving into their lyrics reveals a secret but apparently deep lust for a life behind bars.
Let’s start with ‘Headie One’, seen as one of the main flagbearers for Drill music. Recently Headie, who’s real name is Irving Adjei, was jailed for 6 months for possession of a knife. The artist was charged in June 2019, but was released on bail and was able to perform at Glastonbury and Wireless festival in London. Now there is no disclosure as to how Headie was caught with a knife, or where in fact he was when caught. But in a number of his raps he does seem to signpost very clearly that he carries a knife regularly. In his biggest hit ‘18hunna’ (which happens to feature the nation’s current sweetheart Dave, who everyone is rightly raving about), these lyrics appear:
‘Skenged up for the field’ , ‘Skengz in the wiz, no license’
Whilst these lyrics probably make no sense to the uninitiated, they can be seen as a big red flag to Headie’s everyday possession of a knife. ‘Skeng’ is a slang term for a knife, ‘the field’ is the everyday area that he frequents and ‘no license’ is pretty self explanatory. It’s hard to imagine if he could be any more obvious about his knife carrying habits; the fact that this song is occasionally played on national radio makes the appearance of a police officer to his doorstep even more unsurprising. One would imagine he would have been shocked to be arrested (who wouldn’t be), but he really hasn’t helped himself.
But this isn’t the only example. He’s not the lone ranger when it comes to drill rappers leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for the authorities to follow.
Daniel Lena, who goes by the pseudonym ‘Unknown T’, is another rapper who was charged in relation for weaponry. This time it was a murder charge, relating to an incident on new years day 2018; he has subsequently been found not guilty of this charge. It’s a lot clearer here why he was arrested and charged, but again, the lyrics to his most famous rap don’t make pretty reading, and certainly don’t do him any favours. The first proper line to his song ‘Homerton B’ goes:
‘Samurai’s in batches, whack, whack, pull up, skrt reverse, bang the ting goes back in the jacket’
It does not take a genius to work out the overall meaning to these lyrics, and one can really see why this genre received the criticism it does. The more popular and higher profile these artists become, the more interest they garner from the public and in particular, the public services. Daniel, if you’re reading this, I would suggest a more subtle or friendly subject to rap about. Rap about money and success if you have to. You may find that the police take less of an interest in you, and you’ll be able to become more successful. Just a thought.
Both of these examples are relatively high profile, which makes their cases worse than they already were. But there are examples of rappers lower down the pecking order being incarcerated for similar reasons. Jayden O’Neill-Crichlow is just one example.
Before being imprisoned at 17, Crichlow was part of a gang making drill music called OFB. Their biggest song, and the song that essentially alerted the police, was a rap called ‘Youngest in Charge’ where the group appear to mock the murder of another rapper, who was stabbed. Again, a quick look at the lyrics provides rather tough reading:
‘My shank getting saucy with blood’
‘Shank’ here signifies a knife and again, the rest of the lyric is rather clear. What’s worse is that the music video to this rap was uploaded to youtube, making the group all the more obvious to the authorities who check these sites. It’s almost as if the group, and Crichlow himself, were begging for attention to be drawn to them and the blue lights to begin circling.
I for one, am a big fan of drill music, but I fully understand the criticism it receives and the problems associated with the lyrics. It appears that it’s a culture of Drill to rap about this topic. But if these artists continue on the path of highlighting their misdemeanours in their music, and thinking that the authorities won’t notice, they need a rethink. Because they are noticing, and you can hardly be successful when stuck in a cell.
