Denmark is known as the happiest country in the world.
No matter how good the country is,
there will always be a part where people
are living another life.
It’s the unknown group, Shooter Gang.
The young men are wearing masks and have pistols and knives.
And that worries the police.
Like any other ghetto, we don’t fuck with the police.
..At least ten people with me when we’re out walking (gang)
At least ten customers waiting when we’re out picking (gang)...
It’s a parallel society to the rest of Denmark.
..
Those pussy n****s cannot feel safe
Pull up, skrr, bang, and then it’s pulled (bang bang)...
People were getting stabbed and shot.
There will always be this side of the environment.
If you come with respect, you’ll get respect.
If you don’t come with respect, you’ll get fucked up.
Shooter Gang, bitch.
[GANGSTA RAP INTERNATIONAL]
Listen, I’m back outside again.
I got the call.
I’m in Denmark.
Now, usually when I come to Denmark, I go to Copenhagen.
When I go to Copenhagen,
I see banging buildings, good architecture,
eat some sick pastries.
But I’ve ended up in their second largest city, Aarhus,
to meet with the Danish kings of drill,
the Shooter Gang.
In 2019, Shooter Gang released their debut single,
and the response received online was huge,
with a sound and visual style that was unmistakably influenced by UK
and American drill.
..Mask on, Aprilia Leonardo
And we pull the trigger like we were in Chicago
You need to move fast around here
Everyone here wants to be El Chapo
Relax, but we milk it, play stupid, and the - shh - gets drawn (gang)
Pussy n****s being picked off (stabbed)
One by one, closed...
Being the first drill group in Denmark,
national news outlets
and the authorities weren’t really loving what Shooter Gang were doing.
Police and residents of the area have criticized the video
for idealizing the crime the area is known for.
Shooter Gang consists of three members:
Tan,
Belly,
and Dinero.
They are from one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Denmark,
and from looking at their music video,
I can see they’re on some smoke.
I’m going to meet them in the hood they grew up in,
Trillegården.
Yes, mandem!
-Yes, bro. -What you saying, brother?
What’s happening?
Yes, my bro. What’s going on?
So, what you saying?
What, we’re going to walk around a little bit?
Yo, we’ll show you the area.
After only a short time walking around the block,
the police pulled up on us.
You alright?
They’re asking, “What is going on?”
and, “Are you making some videos?”
and, “Is something wild going to happen?”
Shooter Gang are always masked up whenever they’re appearing on camera,
and this is what attracted the police attention.
This is just like some estates where I’m from.
It just looks the same, bro.
When did you see your first bit of violence on the block?
We grew up in a gang war
because there was a gang war
between the bikers and the immigrants in Aarhus
when we was young.
So, we were seeing the olders prepare,
seeing the AKs, seeing the masks, you know?
It’s a tough neighborhood.
You got these kind of blocks,
then you got, like, another block,
which looks really new.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. They’re rebuilding the neighborhood.
It’s a way to get rid of all the criminal activity.
-Trillegården. -Trillegården.
-Gang shit. -Gang shit.
-Trillegården. -You know the vibes.
Boom!
Trillegården.
That’s the po-po.
Did they just come and just circle?
If there is a tight situation, or not, you know,
they come no matter what, just to check up.
You know them, they know you, like?
Yeah, many of them.
We know them because we have seen them so much.
-They come here every day. -They come here every day, you know.
Yeah, it’s a heated battle between the police.
They are the most organized gang.
Fuck the police.
Our walk around Trillegården got me feeling hungry.
I wanted to see what the local cuisine was saying.
Are you ready to eat some Danish food?
Yeah! Any time I go anywhere, I’m on this traditional ting.
I’m looking at the menu now, yeah,
smoked eel with scrambled eggs.
Don’t take that.
Why?
That seems wavy.
-Yeah, but-- -What, you not on that?
That is too Danish.
So why do you stay away from the “too Danish” thing,
what is that about?
We grew up in Denmark but our family’s not from Denmark.
We are not original Danes, and you can--
-You can feel that. -And you can feel that
when you walk around.
You were born here, you feel like this is your home,
but not 100 percent.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We come from the ghetto, so in the ghetto, there’s--
You know, people from many different countries.
OK, right now, all of this looks like a wave.
What is this?
-Yeah, herring curry. -Herring with curry.
Yeah.
How it taste?
That’s a vibes. Yeah, that’s a vibes.
That’s nice, you know?
Oh yeah, obviously you can’t eat with the mask on, right?
It was interesting to hear Shooter Gang talk about
how they didn’t feel like original Danes.
We headed back to Trillegården because Shooter Gang had told me
there was potentially a block party happening that evening.
Now, what I’ve found out, which is quite interesting,
the government do a list which is called the ghetto list,
and there are certain criterias that you need to have
in order to be in that ghetto list.
So, for example, high crime, unemployment rate,
being uneducated,
all of these type of things, yeah?
But it’s just so interesting to me
that they actually have a list called the ghetto list.
And here is high on the list.
..Trillegården and we shine
Putting juu in my grinder
Out cruising in the low rider
Hitting the spot like a sniper
First class when we travel
Marrakech and it’s Tangier...
What he’s riding around in right now
literally looks like a toy that is blown up into human life.
It looks weird.
This is mad.
Do you want to try?
Yeah, can I have a little, just a little one rev?
Yo, not too fast, yeah?
-Just light. -Not too fast.
-Nice and easy. -Just light, yeah?
-You understand? -Ah, cool.
I translated.
Watch my man do a mad ting now.
Yeah?
Rasclart.
Oh shit!
Alright, alright, alright, stop!
Low it, cuz!
I told you I’m done with this monster truck shit, man.
Fucking hell, my eyes are watering, cuz.
Yeah, that’s mad.
But I told the man to go slow,
and then he just went mad fast and that.
Shooter Gang told me their manager’s floating around somewhere.
As it turns out, their manager is Marwan,
a rapper/recording artist in his own right
who’s been making hip-hop in Denmark since the early 2000s.
Marwan’s sound is usually more West Coast hip-hop,
but recently he’s jumped on a track with Shooter Gang.
..First p**k who’s taking steps
We’re not just talking, we’re taking action
Street wars and sirens
Barriers and white sheets
Ambush, Fauda, ​​pa-pa partisans...
-What you saying, brudda? -What’s up, man?
-What’s going on, man? -What’s going on, man?
Did you used to live around here as well?
Yeah, I was born here.
-I lived here my whole life. -You was born here? Right.
My parents were political refugees,
like every other boy here, you know?
Because that’s one thing that I noticed as well,
this is probably a lot more multicultural...
-Yeah, it is. -than it is anywhere else.
See, when it comes to Denmark,
you never see this side at all.
-But it exists. -Right.
Yeah, man. This shit, it’s existed for a long time now,
and the boys, like Shooter Gang, are talking about it in the music.
Many people think we glorify the crime and all that shit,
but it’s not the truth
because the truth is we are making it interesting...
to listeners and to seers, you know?
There are some bad boys, and they make stuff.
-But inside, they want to move on. -Yeah, of course.
Because it’s not fun when things happen, you know?
If people die and all that, this is not funny, man.
How did you kind of get out of it?
Music, man.
Yeah, man, music has saved my life, man.
This shit...
going to be big, you know, with Shooter Gang.
Wow, man. Blessed, man. Come on.
Yeah.
As the sun went down,
it seemed like the whole of Trillegården
came out for the block party.
..Just got started
Whole shillie hot
Fuck these n****s and their songs
The city is on fire, they are scared
Me and my n****s, we’re many
Free my n****s who got caught
We pull the trigger before they do
When we pull it, it goes bang...
You need to see some of the spliffs these man are smoking.
I’m talking about the big ones.
So it’s mad skinny, and then the end of thing is mad fat.
When a man came to me with a big spliff and said to me,
“Yo, do you want some of this?”
I was like, I’ll probably start seeing frogs
and
I’m telling you, them things are a whole next one.
Ah, it’s mental.
Good?
-What’s happening? -What’s up, brother?
What does Shooter Gang mean to the people in Trillegården?
Shooter Gang mean a lot to us.
They’re our way to speak to the world, to Denmark
about what we have seen and what we live about, you know?
Shooter Gang are going to be big.
They’re artists.
They’re going to go big with this one.
Nice one, bros.
The following morning,
I went to link Shooter Gang at their studio
to talk some more about their music.
It’s a little further out of town, away from Trillegården.
Yes, what a space, boy.
-Wagwan? -What’s up, what’s up, Chuck?
-How you doing? -What’s up, what’s up?
I’m here to hear some music, bro,
so we can just sit here and talk about it a little bit.
Where do you get the inspirations for your videos and that?
Well, yeah, of course, we are seeing videos from the US, from UK,
from all around the world,
and then we just make it to our own thing.
Pokerface
..Shutdown when they see us on stage
Then there’s no reason to make a scene
You know my shooter doesn’t aim for legs
You know he hits and he hits it all
Brother, we’re up and now they come down so they are below
Investigate us and try to fuck but don’t give in
No matter how many officers they get, I keep my poker face
Keep my poker face, n****s talk, but I know they’re fake...
I think naturally, I get drawn in
when I hear a UK-inspired aspect to it.
Do you get what I’m saying?
Pokerface
with the beat and the flow.
Because we hear a lot of UK drill,
and then you can see it in our music, you know?
What was you listening to when you was young bucks?
There are many groups, you know.
67, though.
67, Harlem Spartans.
I just feel personally that the UK drill is the original drill.
I don’t know why.
I like my more New York drill.
..Wavy, wavy, now they all copy and paste
Because we started a new wave
Seen them fall, seen them hate
Wavy, wavy, shooting star, the Mercedes
Same color as Bailey
Out and about, and it’s daily...
See when you very first started making music,
surely to them it must have been a bit of a mindfuck
because they’re not used to hearing anything like this.
When we put this song out,
we knew the news will go crazy.
We are going to talk about a fierce music video
that gives a dark view of the marginalized area Trillegården
in western Aarhus.
The video shows that they want to appear like a gang,
using weapons and encouraging masking
so that one cannot be recognized.
How did it feel for the news to be on you like that, though?
We anticipated the impact and had studied the music videos.
We had seen what was in Denmark and what wasn’t.
And then bang, we did it.
It didn’t come as a shock.
Does your music imitate your life
or does your life imitate the music?
The lyrics are from our life.
But what a lot of what you see in the videos are fictional.
I mean, when we show you a clip with a guy shooting,
that doesn’t mean it has to be his life, you know?
Or me.
But it’s just things that happen in the area we live in.
The guys in London doing drill,
they had a lot of issues with the police.
Denmark is known to be one of the safest places to be.
How do they deal with you making drill music?
The police and the government, they tried to shut the shows down
like they tried to in UK.
When you then get this chance to perform,
[you] have to prove them wrong.
Don’t fuck it up for yourself.
When you come from the hood, you always have to prove.
This is a bit racist country, you know?
So basically, it’s almost like the police versus you in a sense.
Yeah, we can’t control what’s happening in the crowd.
That’s more frustrating, you know?
It can fuck up our career in show business
because we’re not only drill artists,
we can do different kind of stuff.
..We roll up on the side, they roll behind
They fucking talk, we take it down daily
Yeah, yeah
They fucking talk
We take it down daily
We’re not like them
How they think they’re hot
Let me show them
We do not like them
We’ve spent so many hours
Cannot do it again...
I like that because it’s, like, shows a different side to you.
It shows that you’re kind of versatile as well.
You’re signed to a major deal, right?
Yeah, we have a deal with Def Jam.
That’s cold. So how has that been?
They help promote the music.
And the label, too, it doesn’t make it look that bad
that a big label has accepted us,
so why shouldn’t the rest of the country not?
-Right. -You know?
Even with all of this going on,
ultimately you still have a decent amount of support
in the right places, innit?
Because the record labels are going to fight the fight for you,
and obviously you’re just going to still do what you’re doing.
But I think more so, on top of that,
you can’t stop kids liking what they like.
Yeah, because it’s already a thing now in Denmark.
This with the mask and drill music is popular now in Denmark.
We have inspired a lot of people in Denmark.
And that’s a good thing
because the more people who do this music,
the more it’s going to be accepted.
Exactly.
So, you want to play me another riddim?
It sounds like Shooter Gang are having similar problems in Denmark
to many drill artists in the UK,
with the authorities locking off their shows.
They don’t seem surprised by the outrage they’ve caused, though.
In fact, they’re expecting this kind of attention.
We were heading back to Trillegården to say goodbye to Shooter Gang.
Yes, what’s going on, what’s going on, what’s going on?
Obviously, you lot have proper looked after me,
so I thought, you know what...
I brought out the Henny.
Yeah.
Yeah? Mandem, listen,
thank you every time for looking after me.
I respect what you lot do.
All the best.
You’re always welcome, bro.
Blessed.
..
They want to stop us
No evidence when we catch victims...
Meeting the pioneers of Danish drill has been eye-opening.
I would never have thought that a place like Denmark
would have the kinds of conditions
that create the sort of gritty drill music
that Shooter Gang are making.
But it seems like wherever there’s policies that marginalize
and forget certain groups from society,
there will always be neighborhoods like Trillegården.
Shooter Gang are sharp, though,
and along with a wave of new artists coming out of Denmark,
they know that by diversifying their sound,
they’ll be on the right track to acceptance from the industry.
And then the sky is truly the limit.
Hej hej.