In the last couple of years, drill music has had a stage along with some of the biggest acts in Hip-Hop. On Donda in 2021, “Off The Grid,” was arguably one of the best songs on the album and it featured drill artist Fivio Foreign. Also featured on that album posthumously was popular drill artist Pop Smoke, who was murdered in 2020.
Even years before Fivio and Smoke, rappers like Chief Keef and G Herbo brought the subgenre into the mainstream. But in the last few months, there have been some tragic events connected to the street music scene.
According to XXL, in February Bronx drill rapper C-Hii and Brooklyn drill artist Tdott Woo were both shot and killed. Nas Blixky was shot in the head and leg in January but survived the shooting. Kay Flock is in jail after being charged for murder for a fatal shooting in Harlam in December 2021.
As a result, New York City Mayor Eric Adams called to ban some of the subgenre’s music videos on social media as the city has come to terms with the recent murders of rappers who are connected to the drill music scene, according to the New York Post.
New York rappers Fivio Foreign, Maino, B-Lovee and many others met with Mayor Adams earlier this week to discuss the violent nature of drill music and how it is affecting the community, according to XXL.
Maino posted a video on Instagram clarifying what he and other rappers discussed with Mayor Adams.
In the video, Maino says, “It’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...so he could get a real perspective and a real understanding of what drill rap is and so that we can have some real dialogue and really start to really make things happen.”
In response to what Maino stated, in the same video, Mayor Adams says, “we are going to roll out something together on the whole conversation and we’re looking forward to it.”
In a press conference last week, Mayor Adams admits that he did not know what drill rap was until his son, Jordan Coleman, who works at Roc Nation, showed him music videos. In the press conference, he says, “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 continues, “You know, I mean, we pulled Trump off Twitter because of what he was spewing, yet we are allowing music—displaying of guns, violence—we’re allowing it to stay on these sites.”
Fivio Foreign tweeted back a response saying, “I would luv to come 2gether & work on some type of common ground but it’s deff not the music that’s cause’n or contribute’n to the violence. I want to sit down & talk with @ericadamsfornyc so we can work towards change’n this city for the better.. Fight with us not against us.”
On Wednesday, during Mayor Adams’ press conference about his preliminary budget for 2023, he discussed how his meeting with the rappers went.
From XXL:
“It was very interesting,” he said of the meeting. “Because I don’t know who said it, but they said, ‘We heard you were going to ban drill rapping.’ I did not say that. And they came in with a lot of energy of, you know, ‘Oh, here’s a 62 year old [guy] who don’t understand young people and you want to destroy [drill music]’ and I let them talk.”
“And then I told them what I [actually] said,” he continued. “That violent people who are using drill rapping to post who they killed and antagonized the people who they are going to kill is what the problem is. And they heard me and we are going to be rolling out something in the next few days to deal with this issue. It was a great conversation. I was happy to have them there.”