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1 Leeds Student L. & Crim. Just. Rev. 136 (2021)
Silencing the Story of the Streets: An Investigation into How the Media and Political (Mis)Representations of UK Drill Music Affects the Lives and Identities of Black Youth in South London

handle is hein.journals/lslcjr1 and id is 146 raw text is: Leeds Student Law and Criminal Justice Review Silencing the Story of the Streets: An investigation into How the Media and Political (Mis)r Representations of UK Drill Music Affects the Lives and identities of Black Youth in South London Oluwamitoke Debo-Aina Abstract Drill music's emergence in the mid-2010s coincided with increases in knife-related crime and gang violence; the relationship between the two has been distorted and reported on extensively since. Drill artists have been subjected to increased police surveillance, criminal behaviour orders, and lyrics have been used successfully to bring criminal convictions. Existing research explores the relationship between drill music and crime; often assuming the significance of the genre for its producers and audiences, leaving the actual significance of the genre for this community empirically unexplored. Consequently, the impacts of the genre's misrepresentations: prohibitionist political campaigns and increased use of formal criminalization tactics, remain poorly understood. A semi-structured interview and thematic analysis were undertaken to investigate the participants' (aged 18 to 22) relationships with drill and their subjective experiences of misrepresentation. Mainstream misrepresentations of drill aggravate the existing marginalisation of urban black South Londoners, but participation within the drill subculture mitigates against deviant labelling. Disproportionately black disadvantage is understood within a framework of racial neoliberalism. Structural issues are de-racialized and the black community are blamed for their marginalisation, and punished for their efforts to escape it. Criminalising drill subculture removes opportunities from black youth, silences their discussions of marginalisation, and undermines their efforts to mitigate its effects. Subsequently, this dissertation suggests that local authorities should focus on providing licit activity within urban communities in order to counter gang and criminal involvement. The police should refrain from the excessive criminalisation of the genre and subculture as this exacerbates the issue of urban crime and violence. 136

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