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New York City and hip-hop music have an unbreakable bond that’s gone through many phases ever since the genre was first created in The Bronx nearly five decades ago. The latest metamorphosis of New York rap comes in the form of Drill music, a violently hardcore offshoot of trap which gained initial notoriety in Chicago before new emcees like the late Pop Smoke made it the official sound in NYC streets over the past few years.

However, recently appointed NYC Mayor Eric Adams called for the censorship of certain Drill artists following the murder of 18-year-old rapper Jayquan McKenley (aka Chii Wvttz) outside of a recording studio in Brooklyn. That decision has since prompted a “meeting of the minds” between Adams and NYC rappers like rap vet Maino, recent Kanye-collaborator Fivio Foreign and others from the city to discuss the true issue at hand.

 

 

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“I had no idea what drill rapping was,” Adams admitted during the initial press conference last week (seen above), going on to add that his son, a Roc Nation employee, ultimately exposed him to the subgenre, adding, “he sent me some videos, and it is alarming.” He then stated a plan to approach social media companies to explain the “civic and corporate responsibility” they have to ban the nihilistic lyrical content of Drill tunes, further stating, “we pulled Trump off Twitter because of what he was spewing, yet we are allowing music—displaying of guns, violence—we’re allowing it to stay on these sites.”

This prompted Fivio to respond via Twitter (seen above), where he stated that his new song with Ye and Alicia Keys titled “City Of Gods” is a positive tribute to the city and urged the mayor not to block promotion of the upcoming official music video. In a follow-up tweet, he called for the aforementioned community meeting, writing, “I would luv to come 2gether & work on some type of common ground but it’s deff not the music that’s cause’n or contribute’n to the violence. I want to sit down & talk with @ericadamsfornyc so we can work towards change’n this city for the better.. Fight with us not against us.”

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Adams gave an update on how the meeting went during his fiscal year 23 preliminary budget conference a few days ago, calling it “very interesting” and adding, “they said, ‘We heard you were going to ban drill rapping.’ I did not say that…and they came in with a lot of energy of, you know, ‘Oh, here’s a 62 year old guy who don’t understand young people and you want to destroy [drill music],’ and I let them talk, and then I told them what I [actually] said: That violent people who are using drill rapping to post who they killed and antagonized the people who they are going to kill is what the problem is. They heard me and we are going to be rolling out something in the next few days to deal with this issue. It was a great conversation. I was happy to have them there.”

We’re glad both sides were able to have an educated conversation that we can only hope results in a positive outcome. Maino posted a clip of the meeting on his Instagram, which you can check out below:

 

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Top NYC Rappers Meet With New York Mayor Eric Adams To Discuss Violence In Drill Music  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com