The War: Young Blood - How Sydney’s drill rap gang scene mirrors London bloodbath

The trajectory of Sydney’s postcode gangs explored in The Daily Telegraph’s The War: Young Blood mirror the devastating loss of life experienced on London’s street as a result of drill rap-fuelled knife crime.

One in three London homicides in a single year were linked to drill rap, the same genre of music now exploding in popularity in Western Sydney and providing the soundtrack to a deadly postcode war.

London’s Metropolitan Police tried to put their foot down in 2018, charging drill rap duo Skengdo x AM with breaching an injunction by playing their song Attempted 1.0 at a concert.

The rappers received suspended prison sentences.

In Sydney, NSW Police have stopped Mount Druitt drill rap group OneFour from holding concerts because the group’s lyrics openly taunt rival gangs and boast about violence.

Police are desperate to prevent Sydney, which has seen a handful of teen murders linked to drill rap, experiencing a London-style rise in stabbings.

One third of London homicides in 2018 was linked to drill music, a Policy Exchange report has found.

Rap duo Skengdo x AM became the face of drill rap in London after police tried to stop concerts that fuelled violence.

Of the 41 gang-related homicides in 2018, drill music played a role in at least 36.5 per cent where the victim or perpetrator was an aspiring drill rapper, or drill music videos were used as evidence in the trial. This figure was 23 per cent in 2019.

Knife crime reached its peak of the decade in 2019 when 44 knife offences were committed in a day, claiming 94 victims.

At least 25 per cent of cases in 2018 and 2019 are directly linked to retaliation, the report states.

Of the gang related homicides in London, 80 per cent of victims and perpetrators were black or from an ethnic minority background, with black people in the capital five times more likely to be stabbed than whites or Asians.

Broadcaster Mr Montgomery has been following the drill rap scene in London for years.

The report called out Adidas in particular for launching a social media campaign with drill rapper Headie One, three weeks before he was jailed for six months for carrying a knife.

London music writer documentary producer Andre Montgomery says the genre is not criminal by nature but a reflection of real life on the streets.

Drill risks encouraging young people to accept the idea that criminal behaviour is “fashionable” by promoting artists who are imprisoned for brandishing knives.

“Drill is everywhere now, it started in Chicago in 2011 with artist Chief Keef in Chicago and came over to the UK in 2012, starting in Brixton, south London, and moved to Peckham to north, west and east London,” he said.

“It became a huge thing for disadvantaged people to talk about their lives.

“The problem is drill is now linked to knife crime and there is no doubt the UK is facing an epidemic of violence but whether we can relate this to this type of music is not clear.

“Drill doesn’t cause violence it’s a reflection of what’s happening on the streets, the sheer level of violence young people are in.”