Does music have an impact on the rates of crime and criminal behaviour?

To start of my series in which I will discuss the impact of societal influences on the crime rate and behaviour, mostly in the UK, I will be starting with the influence of music on crime.

Music is a big part of society and it always has been, and as usual (with everything else) the societal majority decides what music is acceptable and what is not and everything that does not fit in with societies standards is frowned upon, especially by older generations, who this post may be more directed towards.

Lets start with the most obvious genre that is widely believed to influence the crime rate in the UK; Drill. Before I make my comments on Drill’s impact on crime, I must state that 1) I don’t listen to drill and 2) I’m really not a big fan of it but bare in mind my aim is to stay objective throughout my analysis and exploration of the genre. If you don’t know Drill, it is a sub genre of trap music that traditionally depicts violent crimes and in general sounds aggressive. Even googling the words ‘drill’ and ‘crime’ brought up masses of articles about the correlation between the two worlds. Now it is easy to blame the UK’s increase in stabbing and violence on the aggressive, tough sounds of groups like 67 and Section Boyz, who are also on the rise, but without actually proof of the two separate entities intersecting we can’t make these statements. In fact groups like this are making music as a way to get away from the lives they are presumed to lead as drug dealers and gang members. Music is their outlet and escape and stories like this seem more likely to promote getting away from the ‘trapper’ lifestyle. Drill artists rap about their real lives and at no point is is made to seem glamorous.  Drill DJ, Dj Bempah made the point that drill can”glamorise [violent crimes] but it can’t force your hand to commit those actions.” After watching Noisey’s documentary called ‘Don’t call it Road Rap’ , I found that this preconception of Drill was preventing Drill artists from performing at their own concerts as police would shut down one show, causing a domino effect of all the venues pulling out. In a country where we are ‘blessed’ with free speech it seems as though law enforcement is finding their own loopholes in this law. What’s unfortunate about this, aside from the loss of income for these artists, is that the police don’t realise that without music these artists will have to turn back to their previous lives,  meaning the rate of crime will continue to increase.

Aside from Drill, Hip- Hop has always been a the scape-goat for crime, not only in the UK but in America. Let’s start with rapper ‘Tyler, the creator’. Whose music I do listen to and enjoy but my love for his music doesn’t blind my judgement. I know his lyrics can be controversial, as he speaks about stalking in his song ‘She’ and raps about stabbing “bruno mars in his god damn oesophagus” in his song ‘Yonkers’. Lyrics like these got him banned from the UK. However, Tyler has always been open about how he is rapping as characters and even in his song ‘Radicals’ he starts the song with a “Random disclaimer! Hey, don’t do anything that I say in this song, okay? It’s fucking fiction. If anything happens, don’t fucking blame me, White America,” Yet his fictitious lyrics still meant he wasn’t allowed into the UK for 3-5 years. Thanks for that  Theresa May. However, we still cannot draw parallels between Tyler the creators music and others actions.

Finally I’m going to talk about rap group N.W.A, whose music was a necessity in raising awareness of police brutality ( in my opinion). Yes they did sing “fuck the police” but their music was a lyrical embodiment of the world they lived in. The music they made only shed light on issues that were already prevalent but through music they prevented people from turning a blind eye e when they don’t like a situation and don’t want to do anything about it.

Through my research it has also come to my knowledge that a study by Tahir Hemphill, had been conducted about the link between crime and music. The conclusion of the study, conducted between 1993-1995, shows that “a significant crime drop between 1993 and 1995 is easily seen while crimes mentioned in rap lyrics are steadily increasing.”

Is is impossible for everyone to like everything and there will always be people who won’t like drill and hip-hop, because they may not like what they are saying as it it vulgar and explicit, but artists are only rapping about what is actually occurring in the the world and shedding light on societal issues. Without the rise of Drill in the UK, as a scapegoat for the UK’s problems, the awareness of stabbings in London would not be as prevalent as they are.

Thank you,

Sope