CULTURE + MUSIC

Will Banning Drill Music Decrease the Murder Rate?

I think it’s a great thing, but some think it’s an attack on freedom of speech

So New York City Mayor Eric Adams — who happens to be a Black man — is seeking to ban drill music on social media.

“What the fuck is drill music?” Some of you may be thinking. I know that some of my readers are at a certain age group where they don’t keep up with the latest trends of my generation and then I have some of my readers who are white that just don’t understand any of this, which is fine.

Drill music is basically a subgenre in hip-hop. It’s a style in trap music defined by its dark, violent, and aggressive lyrical content over trap beats.

To put a little historical context into the mix, drill music originated around 2012 in the Chicago area. Rapper, Chief Keef, was the one who made it mainstream when it came out with his most popular hit “I Don’t Like” featuring Lil Reese and produced by Young Chop, who both are also from Chicago.

Now I’m not from Chicago, but I can personally relate to the issue that this type of music can do the minds of young people when they consistently listen to destructive music that spreads the message of violence and self-destruction.

People die from this, and the majority of these deaths are Black people.

A lot of the death of young Black men is complex thing, we know that there are political issues. You can look at the politicians at the fact that they neglect economically, areas in Baton Rouge like some parts of the north side and some parts of the south side. Same in Chicago, they neglect the south side and west side of the city.

So politics does matter, but marketing does as well. Marketing is a significant tool to spread awareness of whatever you’re promoting.

Part of the reason why as Black folks we are so comfortable with Black death is that it is mass-marketed to us daily. They market the Black man as someone who is no different than a wild animal, a savage, and all types of negative stereotypes.

Music is THE MOST influential thing in the Black community and racist white corporations like Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube know this which is why they deliberately use it against us. They will allow these destructive messages to be played all across the world that negatively impacts us but will NEVER allow the same messages to be distributed and performed by other groups like Jews and Asians for example.

But according to the dominant society (white supremacists), people like The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan are dangerous. That’s why they banned him from platforms like Spotify and Netflix. That is laughable.

I support what Mayor Eric Adams is doing with this. This is something that needed to be addressed a long time ago and I hope more people will be supportive of it as well.

Jaron Mays. 2022. All Rights Reserved.

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