In its production, UK drill has transformed to match its new environment. By late-2014, MCs in Brixton-the gentrifying heartland of London’s Caribbean diaspora-were gaining online attention for their videos of raps over trappy, American-style instrumentals, such as 67 (pronounced “six-seven”) frontman LD’s “ Live Corn” and 150’s (“one-fiddy”) Jamaican patois-tinged “ Look Like You.” Fast-forward to 2018, however, and the sound has evolved beyond its Windy City roots. The English capital’s most impoverished pockets south of the River Thames proved fertile turf for the genre’s digital cross-pollination. Videos of Chief Keef and drill’s other key artists landed in London via YouTube in 2012.
If you listen to enough of these lyrics, you would be inclined to believe him.ĭrill music-the breed of trap-rap conceived on the streets of Chicago at the start of this decade-has not just arrived in London: it is taking over the underground scene. “Kennington where it’s fucking sticky!” goes the next.
#BLEACH UK DRILL SERIES#
This particular line is referring to Operation Trident: the London Metropolitan policing initiative established in 1998 to reduce gang-violence after a series of fatal shootings. “Fuck Trident, we all violent, man back your city,” spits MizOrMac, a member of the drill collective Harlem Spartans, in the chorus of “Kent Nizzy.” The Spartans are local celebrities who have stacked up millions of YouTube views over the last 18 months, and they live in Kennington Park Estate, a social housing complex wedged between the park and historic cricket stadium. Comparable to the conception of grime in East London at the start of the millennium, UK drill music has shaken the foundations of British youth culture. In recent years South London has been the epicenter of the next generation’s sonic earthquake. But among local teenagers, these areas have a very different reputation.
#BLEACH UK DRILL PROFESSIONAL#
Kennington is known in professional circles as the home of politicians and diplomats, and neighboring towns of Brixton, Peckham, and Elephant & Castle as trendy, regenerated hubs of restaurants and bars. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? The deceptive thing about life in London, though, is that pleasant vignettes are never far from harsher realities. The nearby road is lined with cozy townhouses and gastropubs, and in summer, the buzz of crowds at Oval cricket ground echoes between buildings. From the benches in the flower garden of Kennington Park, south London-not far from The London Eye and Houses of Parliament-you can see people reading books, jogging, and walking their dogs.
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