Western Sydney drill rap gangs: Inside OneFour and 21District

Western Sydney teens are being recruited into warring gangs with the promise of the latest electronics, new shoes and even Playstations, a senior cop has warned.

There is one thing Sydney’s rival gangs have in common – pride in their postcode.

Battlegrounds between the rival OneFour and 21Distric gangs are divided along suburb lines, with police caught in the middle.

As the originals or ‘OGs’ have retired and the younger generation has moved through the ranks, both sides have made headlines, linked to public brawls, stabbings and even murders.

At the heart of the scene is rap music, headed up by the OneFour rappers from Mt Druitt and their rivals, the 21 District rappers from Inner West.

The suburbs have become the heartland of a growing music scene influenced by the drill rap subgenre from the UK.

The new brand of western Sydney rap is still in its infancy, driven by the commercial success of OneFour and 21 District, who already share hours of radio airplay and millions of streams and downloads between them.

But for police, the music merely serves to spread the influence of the groups and fuel escalating gang violence.

In 2019, the largely underground groups and their followers made it to the mainstream, with NSW Police launching a specialised squad, Strike Force Imbara, to tackle what they fear is a growing culture of violence.

Word on the street is the beef between the gangs traces back 16 years to a fight at Granville train station between the original Inner West and Greater West (now known as OneFour) members, the postcode turfwar expanding as Sydney’s suburbs grow.

Sydney rap act OneFour - supplied

Head of the NSW Police Youth Command Superintendent Mark Wall said established gang members were deploying tactics to lure young teens into the gang scene.

“We’re told the entry point is that they get approached by gang members when they’re young and get offered things to come into it,” Supt Wall said.

“They see it as a lifestyle where you get a phone, new shoes or a PlayStation by being part of the gang.

“They say if you’re part of a gang you get the money, the shoes and they talk up the lifestyle as being part of the gang,” he said.

“But they don’t talk about the downsides, that you’re against the community, you could get put into jail or you could get assaulted.”

Supt Wall said territories and postcodes were at the heart of the gang wars.

“We’re finding with some of that gang violence, it’s the same kind of people from the same background but they’re linked to an area, whether it be Mt Druitt or Parramatta,” he said.

“So we’re trying to identify their heritage and history. We do that by using PCYC staff, but we also get elders from the area, whether it be Aboriginal elders, chiefs from Pasifika nations or the Sudanese community, to provide elders that come in and teach them about the culture.”

Territories and postcodes are at the heart of the Sydney gang wars, say police. Picture: YouTube

He said many of the gangs were using the rap groups to further their power and influence.

“The identity is more linked to the postcode of the area that they come from. So they link into that and piggyback off the music,” he said.

“The main aim of our programs is to give them belonging to their culture and the good side of their culture, including their music.

“For a lot of Pacific Islander people, music is a big part of their culture. At Blacktown PCYC there is a music hub where they can produce their music.

“We encourage the interest in the music, but to do it in the right way and not turn it into songs about violence.”

A senior police officer tasked with tackling western Sydney’s gang wars last year called on the courts to dismantle the groups by banning their contacts.

“The courts and police need to shut these groups down. How do we do that? Through non-association orders,” Senior Sergeant Craig Pullen said.

“We need to make sure these groups get disbanded permanently.

“These groups don’t care about anyone else apart from their social media status and the only way we can put a stop to this is enforcing these non-association orders.”

A gang member is arrested in Mt Druitt and taken away by police.

His comments came after a brawl at a Pacific Islander football match in Mt Druitt in October 2019 in which OneFour associates started a brawl in front of terrified families.

The sentiment is the main ethos of Strike Force Imbara, which was set up almost two years ago to disrupt street violence following a bloody daylight brawl outside Westfield Parramatta.

The proactive task force has worked hand-in-hand with the bikie-busting Strike Force Raptor to source intelligence on potential conflicts before they erupt.

PCYC chief executive Dominic Teakle said their programs such as Fit for Change and Fit for Work, are aimed at breaking the cycle of crime and to divert young people away from acts of violence., while the Haka Warriors program targets Pacific Islander youth to reconnect with their culture outside of gangs, with 10 schools across western Sydney taking part.

“We’re looking at early intervention and a lot of that is about curbing that gang affiliation,” Mr Teakle said.

“Because they now have a way to express things through music, it is far more public. Then the music becomes shared and then it becomes popular and you’ve got young kids playing it without even really knowing what they’re listening to.

“It’s about diverting young people and saying let’s go and play sport, let’s go and dance and create music. Let’s go and hang in a manner that is safe and not creating allegiance to violence.

“It’s trying to normalise a gathering that isn’t related to how extreme one can make a video so everyone likes it.”

Mr Teakle said working with former gang members was a big part of their work.

“At Blacktown a father actually reached out to me. He was an Islander man and was a former member of an outlaw motorcycle gang,” he said.

“He said, ‘Thank God my son is in this program as I don’t want him to have to fight like I do.’

“That’s a story of change where you’ve got that lineage and it’s like breaking the cycle.”

Originally published as Western Sydney drill rap gangs: Inside OneFour and 21District