Politicians Are Starting to Blame NYC's Crime Rate on Drill Rappers

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has come out and called for social media platforms to ban the music videos from drill rappers.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been in office for only about a month. But in that stretch of time, Adams has focused in on the spiking crime rate in New York City as something he wants to tackle.

And now, Adams has come out and pointed at rap music as a culprit, specifying Brooklyn Drill, New York City's hottest rap scene. During a press conference on Friday February, 11th, Adams not only spoke out against drill rap but he actually called for social media platforms to ban the music videos. Even more interestingly, he juxtaposed banning drill rap videos on platforms to banning Donald Trump on Twitter.

"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. 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. 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."

Adams' comments come days after Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez also targeted drill rap.  Gonzalez gave an interview on Fox5Ny where he said, "These drill rap videos are causing young people to lose their lives. It’s not that the music is the cause of the violence, but it’s fueling the desire to retaliate." He also tweeted  "Drill rap videos are fueling violence among rival gangs across our city." 

The public spotlight from politicians comes after a number of incidents involving local New York City rappers. Last week, Tdott Woo, real name Tahjay Dobson, was shot and killed in Brooklyn just after signing a record deal. CHII WVTTZ, who was from the Bronx, was also shot and killed in Brooklyn after attending a recording session. This also comes after Nas Blixky recently survived a bullet to the head. Also, last month, 16-year old C Blu was charged with shooting a police officer. 

The heightened awareness has also attracted the attention of people who work in the industry. DJ Drewski, a DJ on Hot 97, announced that he would no longer be playing "gang/diss songs" on the radio. He told Complex, 

“We just don’t want to add fuel to the fire that’s already going on. Because I’m seeing it firsthand — I know the artists, I’m speaking to the artists. They say, ‘Drewski, we don’t want to have to do none of this. It’s just, we know when we put a diss out, it’s going to get the views on YouTube.’ So I know they don’t even want to be a part of it. But because they’re knee deep in it, their egos, it’s hard for them to speak on it [and] say, ‘We not doing this.’ So I said, ‘Let me be the catalyst, let me open that door.’”

It should be added that Fivio Foreign, one of the most popular Brooklyn drill rappers told TMZ,  “It’s not the music that’s killin’ people, it’s the music that’s helpin’ niggas get out the hood.”