In the UK as of late there has been lots of talks about drill music, a sub genre of rap that usually consist of truthful or violent lyrics. The media has recently been putting some of the blame on drill artists for the amount of violence, stabbings and shootings that are happening across the country.
Bias:
Though it amazes me how blatantly bias and out of touch the news is when it comes to these subjects, it comes across as if the news reporters have never listened to the music they are reporting on, have never spoken to any members of the community involved in this type of music and they have never been to the areas these artists come from.
You can see that in their heads they have already maid up their minds on the subject even though they have an immensely limited view on the subject and they have let fear control them rather than looking at the subject from a neutral standpoint which the news is supposed to to. (though the news not being neutral is something for another day).
If you listen to the media they will tell you how these scary criminals are making people violent through their music oh and don't forget the majority of the people making this music are MINORITIES which the news blatantly plays upon to push an agenda depending on the story.
If you have never listened to drill or specifically UK drill I would advise you to listen to some with a neutral standpoint to get a better understanding of the artists. Personally I do listen to a lot of rap music though I really listen to a wide range of genres depending on how I'm feeling or what I'm doing and I very rarely listen to drill music because it doesn't appeal to me in many ways, the majority of the lyrics are talking about violent behavior because that is what the artist have been through, though myself I am not a very violent person and I am usually the type to try and defuse confrontation, because I don't particularly get offended by peoples words or actions people don't make me angry that often, generally I am just not involved in violent activities specially not gang violence so music about gangs and violence doesn't appeal to me often. But lets be honest when the beat is good the words often don't matter.
So even though I don't regularly listen to drill I can still understand why they talk about what they do and I can occasionally relate to some of the issues they raise.
Perspective:
There is a debate currently discussing if drill music makes people more violent and if the people making drill are nasty people and the mainstream media seems to be very much of the standpoint that drill music does make people violent and the people making it are nasty people.
To me this is very frustrating and I have talked about the media making people monsters before and how and why I disagree with it. If you interested in reading. It just seems crazy how the media can be so blatantly bias and really stupid at times. Saying that listening to music makes people commit crimes is truly absurdity, music can definitely stimulate emotion but it can not make you do things. If you listen to drill music it may make you feel hyped up but if you then go out and stab or shoot someone that is entirely down to you, you simply can not blame music for you choosing to go out and do something. If a person had the idea to go out and stab someone they would do it regardless of music, the act would have been preemptive and they may have listened to drill to hype them up before going out but that does not mean the music made them do it.
People may be weak minded at times but if you say music made you commit a crime you are either lying or have underlying mental issues that seriously need to be looked at, to me it's like a person who is depressed attempting suicide and blaming Florence and the machine, there will always be more to it.
News reporters also seems to completely ignore the perspective of the people making the music, in this statement I don't want to lump all news platforms in because the BBC does seem to do a pretty good job of showing both sides, as they may seem bias on their live news shows but they do also have places like 1Xtra where they upload short documentaries from the artists perspective see hear.
If you watch their perspective you will quickly see that they are just people that are from crime ridden areas who have realized the errors in their ways and are now using their experience to try and make a better life for themselves, their family and their community. They are trying to show young people that it is not to late to change and that there are other ways of being successful and that it is not bad to talk about past experience as it can help to get emotion out and feel better.
It especially seems strange that the media seems to look down upon these artist to such an extent and blame them for so much crime in their area when there are artist like Stormzy who are massively glorified in the media even though he often talks about the same sorts of things as drill artists, however because he speaks well and is more marketable to the main stream his is glorified and others from the same areas are shunned.