NYC Mayor Eric Adams Calls On Tech Companies To Police “Alarming” Drill Music
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is calling on social media companies to help police gun violence linked to “alarming” drill music. “We pulled Trump off Twitter, because of what he was spewing. Yet we’re allowing music, displaying of guns, violence. We’re allowing it to stay on these sites,” Adams said in a press conference today, adding that he wants to hold a meeting with high profile rappers in the Brooklyn drill scene.
Adams’ statement comes after the recent deaths of two young Brooklyn drill rappers. Last Tuesday, ABC News reports, 22-year-old Tahjay Dobson, aka Tdott Woo, was shot and killed in front of his home in Brooklyn hours after signing a record deal. And Jayquan McKenley, an 18-year-old rapper from the Bronx known as CHII WVTTZ, was shot and killed while leaving a recording studio in Brooklyn on Sunday.
“There are thousands of Jayquans in our city right now. Thousands of children experiencing homelessness and poverty, who need educational support, who are at high risk,” Adams said in a speech on Thursday. “We cannot let thousands of children lose their lives to violence and neglect … Like many young men, Jayquan was an aspiring rapper. ‘Aspiring’ is a word that means hope, but his music was anything but hopeful.”
Earlier this week, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez tweeted that “drill rap videos are fueling violence among rival gangs across our city.” In an interview with Fox5NY, he said that that there have been “a number of shootings in Brooklyn recently that are directly related to drill. These drill rap videos are causing young people to lose their lives. It’s not that the music is the cause of the violence, but it’s fueling the desire to retaliate.”