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Copping the blame: the role of YouTube videos in the criminalisation of UK drill music

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2022

Tilman Schwarze Open the ORCID record for Tilman Schwarze [Opens in a new window]  and
Lambros Fatsis Open the ORCID record for Lambros Fatsis [Opens in a new window]
Tilman Schwarze
Affiliation:
School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK E-mail: [email protected]
Lambros Fatsis
Affiliation:
School of Humanities and Social Science, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

UK drill music frequently features as a prime suspect in newsrooms and courtrooms that charge it with driving the ‘knife crime epidemic’ in Britain's major conurbations. Such prejudicial assumptions about the role of drill in inciting violence are largely unfounded, but nevertheless inform criminal justice policy that leads to unjust and discriminatory outcomes. While drill rappers consciously post violent content on YouTube to increase viewership and gain popularity, the role of YouTube in facilitating and profiting from this traffic in violent imagery is rarely questioned in criminal proceedings – enabling, as it does, the weaponisation of such videos as ‘bad character evidence’ in court. Drawing on a selection of YouTube videos that represent drill rappers as dangerous ‘criminals’, this article argues that such videos function as a resource for the criminalisation of drill by police and prosecutors who present drill lyrics as personal testimony that is robbed of its fictive qualities, and makes rappers vulnerable to prejudicial ruling and discriminatory treatment within the criminal justice system.

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Popular Music , Volume 41 , Special Issue 4: Prosecuting and Policing Rap , December 2022 , pp. 463 - 480
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

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