Drill is a genre of rap known world wide
that has spread from its birthplace in Chicago
across the ocean to the UK.
But drill has become more than a musical genre,
it’s a movement and a lifestyle that reflects the dark reality of the streets,
including murder, robbery, drug dealing and any other crime you can think of.
This has led the UK authorities to attempt to ban the music
by blocking the videos of top drill artists from YouTube
and arresting well-known rappers just for making music.
Here is a look at some UK drill rappers who were arrested for their bars.
Skengdo and AM
Skengdo and AM are a British rap duo from the Brixton neighborhood of London.
They are known to be members of the 410 collective,
a prominent drill group that is also alleged to be a street gang
linked to numerous stabbings and other crimes.
Skengdo released his first mixtape, 2bunny, in 2017,
on which AM was a featured guest.
The two collaborated with Chief Keef in 2018 for the song Pitbulls
and established themselves as leaders of the UK drill movement.
But, 410 has beef with another music group and gang called the Harlem Spartans.
Their constant wars with this rival group attracted the attention of British authorities
and media outlets like Sky News,
who featured the crew in a documentary about gang violence in 2018.
Their activities also caught the attention of the British police,
who handed the group a gang injunction back in 2018,
claiming that they were inciting violence with their music by glorifying crime and taunting rival gangs.
The laws in the UK are different than in the US.
In America, music is protected by the right to free speech.
There are limits to what a rapper can and can’t say, especially when it comes to acts of violence,
but in the US the police can’t decide to ban you from creating a particular kind of music.
If you rap about something, then actually do it,
prosecutors can use it as evidence to build their case against you.
But they can’t prevent you from saying it in the first place.
The UK has a completely different set of laws when it comes to speech
and therefore the courts have ruled that drill music can be outlawed
because it is known to incite violence.
In 2018, they launched a program called Operation Domain,
where they arrested 20 rappers and had 130 drill music videos removed from YouTube.
Skengdo and AM were a part of that crew of rappers who were banned from making music
under what is called a Criminal Behavior Order,
which prevented them from making music,
publishing songs or music videos without the permission of the police.
This was a major blow to the two rappers,
who were considered leaders of the UK drill scene at that time
and on their way to building legal careers away from the street.
In 2018, there was a series of gang-related murders that made police crack down on the genre.
Even though 410 were not directly involved in any of the killings,
the murders did involve their opps,
the Harlem Spartans, and another crew known as Moscow17,
which led police to believe the group had some involvement.
Even if they didn’t commit the murders themselves,
the police argued that 410 were adding to a culture of violence that resulted in the killings.
The group was banned from directly or indirectly
referencing their enemies in their music or referencing any past crimes.
Their track Attempted 1.0
was used as a prime example of a song intended to incite violence
against their opps and they were banned from ever playing or performing it.
Because most of their music was based around street subjects,
it was nearly impossible for Skengo and Am
to continue their music career the way it was going.
But, that couldn’t stop their hustle and they continued to release music
that didn’t mention the Spartans or any of their other opps.
It wasn’t long before the criminal injunction caught up with them
and the duo was arrested after a performance at Koko,
a venue in London on December 10th, 2018.
The group performed one of its classic hits – Attempted 1.0,
the track the police had used as a reference of the type of song
they are not allowed to release and perform.
Although no acts of violence were actually committed during the show,
the performance of the song was enough for police to arrest them for violating the criminal behavior order.
The duo was charged with breaking a gang injunction
and sentenced to a nine-month suspended sentence that was to stay in place until 2021.
This meant that they were not given any immediate jail time,
but if they broke the injunction again,
they would be sentenced to prison for nine months.
This was the first time in UK history
that anyone had been given a prison sentence, just for the performance of a song.
The duo continued to release music,
but it limited the group's creative abilities and held them back from performing many classic songs
that their fans know and love.
The gang injunction is set to expire in 2021,
which means they soon may be able to rap however they want.
Hopefully, this means that Skengdo and AM can get back to releasing gritty bangers
and reclaim their position in the UK drill scene.
But Skengdo and AM aren’t the only rappers to get hit with a Criminal Behavior Order
that impacted their ability to release music.
This next rapper was hit with a CBO that resulted in him going to jail three separate times,
including once where he was stabbed in the eye with a shiv made from a tuna can.
Yupp, here’s the wild story.
Digga D
Digga D is a rapper from West London,
who is known for being a member of the hip hop collective 1011 – later renamed CGM.
He is considered one of the first UK drill rappers and is credited with being one of the originators of the sound.
He made his debut on the drill scene in 2016
with the track Hella Bandz, after getting kicked out of school
when he was arrested for possession of cannabis.
Although Digga D initially didn’t make much of an impact on his own,
he started making music with his friend under the name 1011
– a combination of the W10 and W11 postcodes,
which were the areas they grew up in.
The group started gaining attention with tracks like No Hook and Play for the Pagans,
which are now considered classic UK drill tracks.
1011 used to be part of a larger group called 916,
which contained members from the W12 neighborhood of Shepherd's Bush.
But internal tensions within the group led them to split off into multiple different squads.
The guys from W12 became the groups 12 World and 12 Anti.
The rest became just 1011 – including Digga D.
Since then, 1011 has been involved in an ongoing deadly beef
with the two other sets which has led to multiple stabbings and arrests.
At just 14, Digga got run up on by dudes from 12
and the brawl was captured on camera.
I'll **** you up, I'll **** you up.
Where you from fam?
Course you are fam.
So what have you got your shoes?
Are you holding it for him?
You know anyone from Bush?
I didn't think so.
Nothing wrong, say **** it.
Say **** bro, say **** bro.
In 2017, a video came out of members of 12 dissing a 1011 member’s grandma,
which led to Digga leading an attack against them.
But local residents saw them riding down the street on bikes wearing balaclavas,
the face masks many drill rappers wear to hide their identity.
The group was stopped by police and caught with machetes and baseball bats.
The crew claimed that they were just on their way to shoot a music video,
but the cops weren’t convinced,
and they were all arrested for conspiracy to commit violent disorder.
Digga D, along with four of his friends
were sentenced to a year in prison and hit with a Criminal Behavior Order,
which prevented him from writing or publishing music
that referenced his opps or any crimes they’d committed.
But that didn’t stop Digga from releasing music.
He just found new creative ways to rap about the streets without directly referencing enemies or his past activities.
It also didn’t stop the police from keeping a close eye on him.
He was only out of jail a few months
before being brought back for breaking the CBO.
He was released for the original charge in October 2018
but arrested again in 2019 for entering the W12 postcode
where his rivals lived,
which he was banned from doing because of the CBO.
His lawyers argued that this was too restrictive and traveling into nearby neighborhoods
were sometimes necessary to live and conduct business, | so they let him out after just 2 weeks.
But not long after, Digga D and his crew
were involved in another violent situation outside a metro station
that sent the rapper right back to jail.
On January 2nd, 2019
Digga and two other members of 1011
who went by the names Sav’O and HK
were involved in a knife fight outside of the Westbourne Park tube Station on Harrow Road in London.
The fight was not with 12world,
but with another rival group called the Harrow Road Boyz.
The fight took place in an area known as Mozart,
named after the Mozart estates where the Harrow Road Boyz are from,
an area that Digga was banned from entering because of the CBO.
HK and one of the Harrow Road Boyz ended up getting stabbed
and the whole thing was captured on surveillance camera.
Check out our video on UK Rappers in Knife Fights for more info on this fight.
Not long after the fight,
Digga was brought back to jail for breaking the CBO again
by entering Mozart and getting into a machete brawl.
While he was in jail awaiting trial,
he was stabbed in the eye with a shiv made from a tuna can.
He ended up almost losing the eye and in court documents,
his lawyer revealed that he’s suffering from PTSD over the stabbing.
It’s not clear which opp got the drop on him,
but it was likely someone associated with the Harrow Road Boyz,
since he was in jail for going to war with them.
In March 2020,
Digga pled guilty to violent disorder
and breaching his CBO and was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison.
Sav O also pled guilty and was sentenced to three years.
HK was only 17 at the time and his records were not released to the public.
Digga shocked fans in July 2020
after rumors circulated that the rapper was home after only serving a few months of his sentence.
He managed to confirm those rumors by getting arrested again
for attending a Black Lives Matter Protest.
On July 14th, 2020,
Digga posted to Twitter that the police considered speaking about BLM
as promoting violence and he was brought back to prison just for attending the event.
He has since been released but continues to have issues with the cops
and face legal battles related to his CBO.
It can be hard to continue to have a successful career as a drill rapper when playing the wrong track at a show
or stepping into the wrong neighborhood can get you sent back to jail.
Hopefully, Digga can keep his head down and keep making music until the CBO is lifted
and he can get back to making grimy street bangers.
But if you thought that was crazy,
this next rapper killed a man,
then dropped a freestyle where he talked about it on YouTube…
all while in prison.
Here’s what happened…
SJ
SJ is a rapper from Tottenham, North London
who is associated with the group Original Farm Boys or OFB.
They are known for featuring well known drill rappers like Headie One and RV.
SJ was one of their younger, up-and-coming members,
whose career was cut short after he was arrested for murder in 2019.
Headie One and RV put OFB on the map
and are respected names in UK hip hop and the drill scene.
SJ was seen by many to be the next wave of OFB,
having racked up over 23 million views on YouTube
for tracks like Youngest in Charge.
Like many UK drill rappers, OFB got hit with a gang injunction in 2019
and had several of their music videos removed from YouTube.
They’ve attempted to get around the censorship,
by avoiding dissing their opps directly,
which has forced them to try to clean up their music and image.
But on the night of February 22nd, 2019,
SJ’s life and career changed forever
after he was involved in a fight that left a man dead.
SJ, along with six other members of a gang called NPK
planned an attack on opps that resulted in two stabbings.
They got together on bikes that night and headed into Wood Green,
where they spotted their target Kamali Lynck,
also known as K1 with a group of his friends outside the Vue Cinema.
Someone in the crew started firing shots at K1 and all hell broke loose.
SJ and the NBKs ended up catching up to K1 and his homie Swift,
who both tried to jump into K1’s car.
One of the NBK’s shot swift in the ass,
before the rest of the crew jumped on top of him and started stabbing.
K1 got into the car and tried to ram into the group to keep them away from Swift,
but there was too much traffic.
He ended up getting pulled out of the car by SJ and the NBK’s
and was attacked with knives.
K1 got out of the car
and ran into a local hairdresser,
called the Koffee and Kream salon.
Terrified witnesses watched as K1 was stabbed to death
inside the salon by three men in masks.
They all fled the scene and ended up getting caught on camera running away.
K1 ended up dying from his injuries and Swift survived but was critically injured.
Five men were arrested including SJ,
several that were under 18 at the time.
The police had plenty of evidence to bring a conviction and in total,
they were sentenced to a total of 116 years in prison.
SJ himself was sentenced to life with a minimum of 21 years.
But, getting a life sentence hasn’t stopped his hustle.
While locked up,
SJ has recorded several prison freestyles over the phone
which have been uploaded to YouTube.
In one he raps
“I lost my brain at 14 I went insane
at 16 I put three opps on my blade
people say I shouldn’t rap this way
because karma's a ***** and might hit me one day.”
The police aren’t too happy about him continuing to make drill rap,
even while behind bars.
But he’s already got a life sentence so at this point,
there’s not much they can do.
SJ had a lot of talent and unfortunately,
his career ended way too quickly.
His story was another case of a rapper
who couldn’t leave the street life alone
and it ended up costing him everything.
Hopefully, he can keep recording bangers from jail
and work on appealing his case so he can have a shot at being released.
Although if he keeps admitting to past crimes in his freestyles,
the chances of an early release aren’t looking too great.
If you liked this video check out some of our previous videos!
From UK Rappers In Knife Fights
to Drill Lyrics That Actually Happened
we cover the most insane stories that you need to hear!
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