Whilst songs and lyrics certainly are products of exaggerated lifestyles, it is, nonetheless, worrying that misogyny foregrounds the wider culture of UK men. By constantly sexualising women in this way canvasses the idea that perhaps these views are reflective of mainstream attitudes: do these men seriously believe a woman ‘ best suck this dick if she’s on her period ?” Loski, a leading voice in the scene, has been labelled by fans with an obsessive outrage towards women who are ‘rude and dead’ since he repeats such lyrics in multiple tracks. “Dumb bitch, on your knees and suck” .is just some of the chilling language displayed across the genre. Although, when it came to parts of his song that sexualised women, the lyrics did not attest to any ‘real’ or ‘admissible’ content, and was simply glossed over. In a recent programme documenting Digga D’s release, his lawyer recited his Criminal Behaviour Order that banned the artist from releasing songs that contained certain lyrics. Unsurprisingly, the same censorship wave that targeted this genre for it’s provocative violence did recognise a theme of anti-feminism, with Met Police Comissioner Cressida Dick dubbing the lyrics to contain ‘extreme violence against women’. The culture of misogyny, however, is no different as drill artists tap into the culture of criminal hedonism, urban violence, and misogyny to gain authenticity in the scene. (1) Imported from Chicago in the early 2010s, UK drill became an offshoot from the already-established grime scene but with borrowed qualities from trap genre. Content studies have found up to 37% of rap lyrics to contain some sort of misogynistic theme. The music scene itself has a long standing history with sexist lyrics and innuendos. Lyrically violent tracks where rappers claim to “ swing them shanks tryna puncture lungs” came under critique, catching the attention of Scotland Yard, yet in these same tracks underlying misogyny often slips unnoticed. BBC investigations this year revealed that a staggering 522 drill videos were removed from Youtube for ‘ potentially harmful content’ Whilst music censorship isn’t a new phenomenon, removing drill content online sparked concerns about racial targeting of the UK’s black youth, accusing the Met Police of “ distracting from root problems”. Since renowned drill rapper Digga D’s prison release last year, the genre has captured UK headlines that routinely criticise drill music for: “ glamourising serious violence, murders, stabbings”.
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