A shocking “drill” video filmed in Forest Gate featuring balaclava-clad youths glorifying gun and knife violence has been viewed more than 2.5million times on YouTube.
The music track appears to incite violence and Newham’s MPs and the council have this week demanded its immediate removal from the social media site.
In the video, young men goad others to “take that risk” and the inflammatory lyrics include: “I put Rambo blades in chests, I put flick knives straight in necks, With a wap [firearm] I’ll aim for your head, If you’re looking at me you’re looking at death.”
It is part of a growing genre called “drill music” which police have blamed for inflaming gang tensions and violence.
Newham Council said it was aware of the video and had reported it to police, while Stephen Timms, MP for East Ham, said: “Material like this should not be freely available on YouTube, where it can be easily viewed by children.”
He added: “I will be writing to YouTube this week to request that it be removed, and am referring the matter to the police for investigation, and for action against those responsible.”
The track was first posted in October last year and has attracted a huge audience online.
Supporters of drill music say it reflects the experience of those living in deprived and gang ravaged areas and is no different to other grime or hip hop music.
But drill is also accused of fuelling tit for tat violence, as gangs “disrespect” each other in hard-hitting lyrics and challenge rivals to respond to the taunts.
MP for West Ham, Lyn Brown, said there is widespread concern among police, social workers, community leaders and parents.
“Many people have made clear to me that they believe so-called drill music is linked to the violence that has devastated our community over the last few years,” she said. “If any form of music incites violence it needs to be removed from the internet quickly.”
She called for changes in government policy to ensure dangerous content can be removed quickly from the web.
But the MP said it was only part of the work needed to address the underlying issues that encourage and enable violence.
Newham’s deputy mayor Cllr Charlene McLean said solutions must be found to deal with the challenges facing Newham’s young people.
“What we have to do with our young people is to talk with them about the dangers of social media, including the increase of violent and nihilistic content in music videos, plus the high risks involved, especially when calling people out online.”
She said the council has already pledged to double the number of youth hubs in the borough.
Police last week announced a crack-down on a small number of videos that “glorify violence” but said it was not the force’s intention to “police the internet or criminalise certain types of music”.
Scotland Yard declined to comment on this specific video.
But Det Supt Mike West, of the specialist crime squad, said: “The Met has been monitoring the increase in the number of videos that incite violence since September 2015.
“The gangs try to outrival each other with the filming and content - what looks like a music video can actually contain explicit language with gangs threatening each other.”
He said officers have been working closely with Google, YouTube’s parent company, in the past few months to remove social media videos that incite violence as quickly as possible.
A database of more than 1,400 videos is also being used by Scotland Yard to gather intelligence, although police refused to confirm whether the Newham drill video features on the list.
YouTube said it has developed specific policies to tackle videos related to knife crime in the UK.
A spokesman said: “We have a dedicated process for the police to flag videos directly to our teams because we often need specialist context from law enforcement to identify real-life threats.
“Along with others in the UK, we share the deep concern about this issue and we do not want our platform used to incite violence.”
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What is drill music?
UK drill music is a subgenre of a style of rap originating on the south side of Chicago.
Drill is a prominent feature of Chicago hip hop, and is defined by its dark, grim, violent, nihilistic lyrical content and ominous trap-influenced beats.
It originated in the UK in the south London borough of Brixton from 2012 onwards borrowing heavily from the established Chicago artists but also earlier British genres such as grime and UK garage.
UK drill groups rely on internet platforms to distribute their music, particularly YouTube.
In May, YouTube reported it had deleted more than 30 violent music videos identified by senior police officers as problematic.
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Newham drill video splits opinion of Recorder readers
We asked Recorder readers on Facebook if the video should be removed from YouTube?
Here’s what you said...
Jam Jamz: “Hasn’t hip-hop always contained that? So what’s next, ban all action and horror movies?”
Tony K Girling: “This ain’t music, this is a music video made to taunt other gangs, if it was proper music they wouldn’t be scared to show their faces.”
Julie Cunningham: “To some kids it can brainwash them!! They think that is what life is about!!!”
Claire Evans: “It should be banned from social media full stop... promotes violence, gangs and glorifies killing,”
Daniel Acheampong: “It’s a music vid, not a stabbing. Concentrate on the latter, ‘coz interfering with videos does nothing beyond annoying people who hate censoring busybodies.”
Jay Kast: “Take it down. Another one goes up tomorrow. Stop using the music as a scapegoat for Newham’s failure, i repeat failure, to invest into many of these young men.”
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Do you have a story for the investigations unit? If so, contact investigations journalist Emma Youle on emma.youle@archant.co.uk
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