When most think of the UK, the first thing that comes to mind
is the royal family, tea and crumpets, or Big Ben.
But the UK drill scene has exposed the darker side of the kingdom
that many don’t get to see,
a world full of stabbings, gang beef, kidnapping, and murder.
Here is a look at some of the craziest knife fights that have involved UK drill rappers
Young Dizz
Europe has much stricter gun laws than the US
and therefore it’s rare for rival gangs to shoot at one another in the UK.
However, that doesn’t stop the violence.
Stabbings and knife crime are more common on the streets of London than they are in the US.
Local gangs are responsible for thousands of stabbings per year,
and police reported that between 2018 and 2019,
there were 4,277 cases of knife crime.
Authorities say that the popularity of drill music is behind the wave of stabbings.
So, in 2019, they partnered with YouTube
to ban the genre and have 130 drill music videos removed from the platform.
One case, in particular involving a rapper from East London named Young Dizz,
caught their attention and prompted the crackdown on drill in the country.
Isaac Donkoh - who raps under the name Young Dizz,
was arrested in April 2019 for a kidnapping that occurred the previous summer.
Dizz was accused of recruiting a group of high school kids,
two that were 16 and two that were 14
to help him kidnap and torture another 16-year-old enemy.
Isaac was a member of the 6th gang,
which operated out of the Beckton neighborhood of East London.
He is also a popular drill rapper who performed under the name Young Dizz
and had even been featured on Tim Westwood’s popular YouTube Channel.
Dizz is known as the Prince of the 6
and is a feared and respected gang member in East London.
He has been making music for years and when drill started to pop off in London,
he caught the wave and began to build a career for himself.
But his music career was put on hold for a while after he caught a pretty wild charge.
Dizz was 21 years old at the time
and had recruited a group of teenagers from a local high school to help him with the kidnapping.
It was later alleged in court that Dizz would often go to the local high school
and flaunt his wealth and status in the street to recruit younger kids in the neighborhood
to help him commit crimes.
He would front them money and drugs,
then use that to manipulate them into doing whatever he wanted.
Allegedly, the victim had stolen some product from Dizz and refused to pay him back or listen to his demands,
so the rapper decided to make an example out of him.
In August 2018,
Dizz and his crew spotted the victim on Gordon Road in London
and forced him into a dark blue Ford.
The victim later testified in court that he was sure they were going to kill him.
Instead, they ended up torturing the victim by beating him,
stabbing him with scissors, burning him with boiling water, and forcing him to swallow cannabis.
They then forced him to call his family and demand a ransom of 1500 pounds - which is around 1900 US dollars -
and eventually let him go.
However, they filmed the whole thing with an iPhone camera,
which was later used as evidence.
Dizz was eventually arrested and sentenced to over 6 years for kidnapping and torture.
Although it was not the only crime that led to the UK’s war on drill music,
it definitely contributed and the official crackdown on the genre on YouTube
came just a month after this incident.
Many have criticized the police and tech company
for their decision to crack down on the genre,
claiming that it is a violation of freedom of speech and creative expression.
But police claim that drill music glorifies violence and gang culture
and has led to an increase in stabbings in London.
However, the ban on drill has only added to the genre's popularity
and the violence hasn’t exactly calmed down.
If you thought that was crazy,
these next rappers started a machete fight in public.
Yuppp, here’s what went down…
Digga D & Sav’O
On January 2nd, 2019,
a fight broke out outside of the Westbourne Park Tube Station on Harrow Road
in London between two rival gangs.
According to news outlets,
the fight was preplanned and was a clash between two rival gangs,
The Ladbroke Grove Gang and the Mozart Gang.
There were seven men in total wielding knives and machetes.
Two innocent women ended up getting hurt in the fight
and all seven men were arrested and sentenced to prison time
– including two famous drill rappers.
Three of the men arrested were a part of a music crew and gang called 1011
who operate out of the Ladbroke Grove neighborhood and are also known as the Ladbroke Grove gang.
The other four were members of another rival street gang and music crew called the Harrow Road Boyz –
who are also known as the Mozart gang
because they operate out of Mozart Estates.
They are two opposing sets who are also a part of the local drill scene.
The three Ladbroke Grove Gang members
who were part of the brawl were 18-year-old Jordan Bedeau,
19-year-old Rhys Herbert,
and an unnamed 17-year-old associate.
Bedeau and Herbert are well-known drill rappers
who make music under the names Sav’O and Digga D.
Digga D and his crew 1011
are credited with being one of the first drill groups in London.
They formed the group in 2015
and have had several clashes with the police while they’ve been active.
In 2017, the group was arrested for carrying machetes and baseball bats
which they claimed were for a music video.
But police weren't buying it
and claimed the group was planning an ambush of a rival gang.
1011 was hit with a Criminal Behavior Order,
which meant that all of their prior videos were taken off the internet,
and the crew had to seek permission from the police before uploading any more music.
By that point, their songs had already racked up millions of plays
and their fans quickly started uploading the music to their own channels to continue the movement.
Also present in the brawl were four members of the Marrow Road Boyz/Mozart gang.
None of them were famous rappers, however,
there are drill rappers in the group like Ratlin and Fredo, but none were present in this particular fight.
The entire brawl was captured by CCTV
and all seven men were quickly arrested after the incident.
The leader of the Mozart gang,
Demani Charles was stabbed in the brawl and was treated at the scene, then arrested.
The 17-year-old associate of the Ladbroke Grove gang
was also stabbed but managed to escape.
He later showed up at a hospital
and claimed he had been injured from falling off a bike.
The rest of the crew involved in the brawl were later arrested in their homes.
Because the fight was caught on tape,
they didn’t have much of a defense
and nearly all of them pled guilty to violent disorder and possession of a deadly weapon.
They were all sentenced to between two and three years for the crime,
except the 17-year-old who was detained for 10 months.
If you thought that was crazy,
this next rapper was arrested
after attacking a moving vehicle with a huge zombie knife.
Joshua Gardner is a drill rapper and a member of the G Lane Gang or CR7 crew
that operates out of Croydon South London.
The crew is well known to the local gang unit,
especially after an incident involving a member named Joshua Gardner,
who attacked a vehicle with a huge zombie knife on the streets of London.
The incident happened back in 2018
and was captured on a dashcam.
The video that was later played in court
shows Joshua on a bike approaching a blue Volkswagen parked on the side of the street.
The vehicle clearly recognizes Joshua as he pulls up and tries to pull out and speed away.
However, traffic prevents the car from escaping
and Joshua gets off his bike and begins attacking the vehicle.
First, he kicks the door and then he starts swinging around a huge zombie knife
and uses it to batter the windows and door of the vehicle.
He tries to rip open the door, but it’s locked,
and the driver manages to get out and escape on foot.
Joshua was arrested and charged with attempting to cause grievous bodily harm.
The gang unit in the local police department was already familiar with Joshua
due to some of his past activities and his involvement with the G Lane gang.
Not much is known about G Lane.
They have a bunch of assorted videos out by different members on YouTube,
including a video for the song No Hook by Grinner and YL
where Joshua can be seen standing in the background.
According to the UK newspaper the Sun,
the gang was also known by the postcode CR7
and had been involved in a gang war that led to multiple stabbings and murders,
including the death of a 15-year-old.
Joshua – who was only 18 at the time of his arrest –
had been charged once before for attempting to rob a school kid of his cell phone and wallet.
To the shock of many paying attention to the case,
the rapper was let off with just 150 hours of community service and no jail time for the road rage incident.
The judge who presided over the case
claims that a kidnapping that had occurred not long before the case
was the reason behind why she let him off with just a warning.
Apparently, on March 26th, 2018,
Joshua was kidnapped by another gang of men in their 20’s over a drug debt that his friend owed.
He was held at gunpoint and forced to sell drugs for them for 10 days
until the debt was paid off.
She claimed that although the kidnapping was no excuse for violence behavior,
it did explain why he was acting in such a reckless and vicious manner.
Many local Croydon residents who were following the case were shocked by this verdict
and claimed that it was only going to lead to more knife crime in the city.
However, Joshua didn’t make contact with the victim,
he merely caused a frenzy and terrorized the public.
The court was not able to bring any evidence of Joshua’s gang ties,
other than his presence in music videos
and therefore it may have been tough to make the jail time stick.
However, that didn’t stop the public from going into a frenzy
claiming that the jail time was too lenient and that it sets a bad example for other kids
roaming the streets with knives and machetes.
But if you thought that was crazy,
this next rapper stabbed a man in the heart outside a fast-food restaurant,
then rapped about it in a song where he mocked him for his meal choice.
You don’t wanna miss this crazy story...
Lil Mdot
Lil Mdot is a rapper associated with a South London gang and rap crew called 814,
a split-off group of a larger gang called the Ghetto Boys that operates in the New Cross, Lewisham,
and Deptford area of South London.
814 has gained prominence in the UK drill scene
and Lil Mdot was one of their most prominent members.
But Mdot’s career would be cut short after he was found guilty of causing bodily harm
to a victim he stabbed in March 2020.
The stabbing occurred outside of After Hours,
a fast-food restaurant in New Cross, south London.
814 is known to have beef with another local gang called Monson bloodset.
The man that Mdot attacked was a man named Ahmad Torfi,
who is alleged to be a member of the rival gang.
However, according to the defense attorneys
Ahmad was not an active gang member but simply friends with a few members of the crew
and was actually a shy, mild-mannered man
who worked as a steward at local sporting events.
He was out that night getting food with his twin brother and girlfriend
when Mdot caught him off guard and stabbed him multiple times in the chest.
He had to undergo open-heart surgery because of the attack and is now permanently paralyzed.
To make matters worse,
Mdot released a freestyle to YouTube
where he brags about the stabbing.
He even goes as far as to diss his victim for his meal choice,
rapping “all he wanted was some mac and cheese”
It’s pretty cold-blooded to nearly stab someone to death,
then make fun of their taste in food,
but in the world of drill rap, anything goes.
Mdot was arrested not long after releasing this freestyle
and sentenced to 14 years in prison for the crime.
Ahmad survived the attack but is now permanently affected.
Although no one deserves to be stabbed in the chest while out grabbing a meal,
there is a disagreement online
as to how involved Ahmed was in the Monson Bloodset gang.
Several media outlets allege that the crime was a case of mistaken identity,
however, this clearly isn’t the case.
Ahmed – who also went by the name Ace –
was at least affiliated with the Monsons,
as seen in this picture drill fans uncovered on social media.
Others have claimed that Ahmed was active on social media
and had gotten into beef with rival gang members online in the past.
Also, Lil Mdot claims in court that Ahmed and his brother
rushed him when they saw him outside the restaurant and was simply acting in self-defense.
Whether Ahmad is entirely innocent or not
doesn’t really matter because Lil Mdot still committed the crime
and then proved his guilt by rapping about it.
But hopefully, this will be a lesson to others
that even just hanging with the wrong people
or making threats online can get you caught up in serious beef.
If you liked this video check out some of our previous videos!
From Rappers In Gangs to Rappers That Ran From Cops
we cover the most insane stories that you need to hear!
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