Rap,
the thing your 50-year-old cousin still thinks
he has a shot at.
Rap has been around for decades.
And it's gotten so mainstream
it's now even part of the Super Bowl halftime show.
But now there's a new style of rap that's blowing up,
and it's gotten to the point where the mayor of New York
is so concerned
that he's trying to rein it in.
NEWSWOMAN: Mayor Eric Adams is trying to curb the violence
associated with drill rap.
Now, that's a branch of rap music
that is about the violent side of the streets.
I had no idea what drill rapping was,
but I called my son
and he sent me some videos.
And it is alarming.
NEWSWOMAN 2: Drill rap came under renewed scrutiny
after 18-year-old artist Jayquan McKenley's murder
earlier this month.
Adams made national headlines late Friday
when he called out social media companies
for their responsibility in promoting violence
in drill rap videos,
and he vowed to put a plan in motion.
We pulled Trump off Twitter
because of what he was spewing,
yet we're allowing, uh, uh, music,
displaying of guns, violence,
we're allowing it to stay, uh, on these sites.
O-Okay, okay.
Hold on. Hold on.
It is not fair to compare President Trump to rappers.
All right? Rappers are all about dissing their haters
and banging porn stars
and bragging about how rich they are
even when they're secretly broke.
Does that sound like Donald Trump to you?
You show some respect.
And, yeah, once again,
social media companies are in the crosshairs.
Because, you know, these days,
they're getting pressured to take a lot down.
Right? COVID misinformation, election misinformation,
hate speech, bullying.
They can't keep up.
I mean, soon, the only thing that's gonna be left
on social media is just gonna be cat photos
and things your grandpa accidentally tweeted
while trying to google
"Where did Jeanie and I have our first date?"
But the real question is,
what is drill rap
and why is it even scaring the mayor of New York?
Well, let's find out in another installment
of If You Don't Know, Now You Know.
♪ ♪
Rap music,
A.K.A. hippity-hop.
It's a music form that tackles every topic, you know?
It talks about relationships,
talks about money,
social issues, life on the streets,
balling.
It can even talk about the relative moisture content
of vaginas.
But it can also celebrate gang violence,
and that's what has some people worried
about drill rap.
NEWSWOMAN: The hard-driving beats
and dark, ominous sound of drill
originated in Chicago.
It was also heavily gang-affiliated.
It got a new life in Brooklyn
and was brought into the mainstream
by the late Pop Smoke.
Drill music has been around for more than a decade,
but local activists tell us what's different
is that the music now has a darker tone,
with drill rappers creating songs and viral dances
that celebrate local murders.
NEWSWOMAN: More than the music itself,
NYPD says it's the taunting and dissing in the lyrics
that are rapped and posted on social media
that fuel the violence.
MAN: It's dissing people that passed.
It's dissing people family members.
It's dissing people homies.
And when that happens, their homies,
their family members and their peoples is gonna retaliate.
And it's just a never-ending cycle.
Yeah, that's right. A lot of the lyrics in drill rap
aren't just about street life and violence in general, no.
They're attacks on specific people in rival gangs,
and especially taunting people who were already murdered.
Which, if you ask me, is way over the line, people.
Like, what are you trying to prove at that point?
The person is dead.
Why you got to make songs dissing a dead person?
It's not like God's up in Heaven like,
"We were gonna let you in, but Lil Tre bodied you so hard
"on that track, you got to go to Hell. (chuckles)
"No bustas allowed through the pearly gates.
Ho, ho, they roasted you, kid."
And, look, I-I'm not a rapper, you know--
until my mixtape blows up--
but if you ask me,
a good diss track doesn't need to call for someone's murder.
It doesn't need that. In fact, in my opinion,
I think the best diss tracks
don't even mention the names at all. Yeah.
Look at Taylor Swift.
All she said was that "someone" stole her scarf.
And it ruined Jake Gyllenhaal's life.
Yeah, that dude wishes he was just shot in the street.
But drill rap is getting renewed scrutiny right now, because
two drill rappers were murdered in New York just this month.
And as you can see, the backlash has been widespread,
right, from Eric Adams to the police
to local community leaders on the ground.
Even some of New York's biggest hip-hop DJs--
people who love drill music, by the way--
have said that they're gonna stop playing explicit
diss tracks because they don't
want to encourage any more violence.
And, look, you can totally understand
where all of these people are coming from. Right?
They feel like the rap is making the street more dangerous.
But don't forget, don't forget, this is an argument
that we've heard about rap music for decades.
Gangsta rap has become incredibly popular
and profitable by selling lyrics about Black-on-Black violence.
Now that some of its stars stand accused of doing
what they've been rapping about,
life seems to be imitating art, so to speak.
And the critics are coming out in force--
some radio stations have refused to play
the most controversial rap records.
In the wake of the Rodney King verdict and the civil unrest
in Los Angeles, some police officers across the country
now say they're feeling threatened
by the lyrics of a rap song.
NEWSWOMAN: Radio stations such as KACE in Los Angeles
and WBLS in New York
announced they would no longer play songs
they considered negative.
You have the right of free speech in this country,
but you don't have the right to yell "fire"
in a crowded theater.
They're yelling "shoot" in a community
that is crowded with guns.
They don't seem to see any connection between
the kind of music which they sell for profit, uh,
and the kinds of problems we have in American society.
NEWSMAN: Rap opponents say they're fighting
to save a generation. It won't be easy.
Last night at the Billboard Music Awards in Hollywood,
one of the most foul-mouthed rappers, Dr. Dre,
was upheld as one of the best artists of the year.
Oh, that foul-mouthed Dr. Dre!
What a disgrace. I, for one,
will never buy mid-range headphones from that man.
But, yeah, back in the '90s, people were saying
all the same things about rap music that they're saying now
about drill rap music. And you'll find,
in another 30 years, they'll be saying the same thing
about whatever rap is then.
"These crypto rappers are out of control.
We don't feel safe in our own Metaverse anyone."
And, look, please don't get me wrong, please don't
get me wrong. I am not saying
the backlash against drill rap
is exactly the same situation as the '90s.
I'm not saying that. In fact this week,
Eric Adams actually sat down with a group of drill rappers
to hear their side of the story, which is definitely
not something that was happening a lot back then.
You know? Like, Rudy Giuliani never sat down
for a meeting with Tupac.
And if he did, it was only because he was trying
to find dirt on Hunter Biden.
But still, the fact that we've been down this road before
probably should be a reason to pause, just pause,
before condemning an entire genre.
Because a lot of the people that think drill rap
is the cause of this violence don't realize
that if you ask people in the drill rap community,
they say, "No, it's not the cause of the violence,
it's actually the other way around."
How are we taking a genre of music and saying
this is the problem in the community?
How the (bleep) that the problem?
That's-- yo, that's music.
There's a problem that already existed
before they had this genre of music.
The music is the expression for trauma.
The community is like-- it's-it's-it's like,
there's no hope, there's no opportunities at all.
We're just making music so we can get out of these places.
MAINO: The lyrics are a manifestation
of what is already happening.
Right? They are actually living their reality, right?
So if their reality was different,
then they would rap about different things.
Yeah, you see, from their perspective,
people upset about violence in rap music
are focusing on the symptom instead of the root cause.
Because you want to ban drill rap,
but you don't want to ban income inequality.
You want to ban drill rap,
but you don't want to ban mass incarceration.
You want to ban drill rap,
but you don't want to ban failing schools.
You want to ban drill rap,
but you don't want to ban the things that lead to drill rap.
And, look, this isn't even unique to this issue, right?
Like, attacking the symptom instead of the cause
is as American as arming teachers.
But just cracking down on drill rappers won't stop anything.
They'll just find another way to express themselves, right?
You're gonna end up creating a generation of drill podcasters.
When I'm putting my enemies to sleep,
I always do it on a Casper Mattress.
The point is, drill rappers are like any other artists.
Their art is going to be an expression
of what's around them.
If you want to stop the music, don't emulate the same mistakes
America has been making for 30 years.
Emulate policies from a country that isn't producing drill rap.
Like, I'm-I'm not trying to start a beef,
but there's a reason
that the Scandinavian drill scene ain't shit.
And, yeah, I'm talking to you, Finland.
What you gonna do, give me free health care?
Shit.
And, look, don't get me wrong, don't get me wrong.
I'm not saying it's necessarily wrong
to stop some of these songs
from spreading on radio or on social media.
I'm not saying that.
All I'm saying is that that can't be the only solution.
And who knows, who knows?
Maybe if you actually fix the issues in these communities,
then maybe, just maybe, the rap music that comes out of them
could sound a whole lot different.
WOOD: You already know what it is.
It's your boy DJ Systemic Change.
My neighborhood good, the roads smooth.
The system working exactly how it's supposed to.
I got no beef, nothing to complain about.
Let's go.
♪ Whoo ♪
♪ Why? ♪
♪ Damn ♪
♪ How? ♪
♪ Hey... hey ♪
♪ Free ♪
♪ Nope ♪
♪ What are those? ♪
-(siren wailing) -♪ Wave ♪
I mean, I'm gonna be honest, I really have no complaints.
It's a wonderful neighborhood, I got a great home.
I got a guy you can call.
We could, you know, get you a good Realtor.