NYC Mayor Eric Adams calls for social media to remove "alarming" drill music

Less than two months into his term as mayor of NYC, Eric Adams has been no stranger to controversy, whether he’s taking his first paycheck in cryptocurrency or eating fish despite claiming to be a vegan. In another move that’s likely to prove unpopular, he spoke out against drill music at a press conference on Friday (2/11), calling on social media platforms to remove material related to the “alarming” rap subgenre and saying he wanted to hold a meeting with Brooklyn rappers.

“I had no idea what drill rapping was,” Adams said, “but I called my son, and he sent me some videos, and it is alarming. We are going to pull together the social media companies, and sit down with them, and state that you have a civic and corporate responsibility. We pulled Trump off twitter because of what he was spewing, yet we are allowing music, displaying of guns, violence, we are allowing it to stay on the site, because look at the victims. We’re bringing them in, we’re going to show exactly what is being displayed, and we are alarmed by it. We are alarmed by the use of social media to really over-proliferate this violence in our communities.”

Stereogum points out that Adams’ statement comes soon after the deaths of two young drill rappers in NYC: 22-year-old Tdott Woo (aka Tahjay Dobson), who was shot and killed Tuesday in front of his home in Canarsie, and 18-year-old CHII WVTTZ (aka Jayquan McKenley), who was shot and killed leaving a Bedford-Stuyvesant recording studio on Sunday morning.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez tweeted about drill music earlier this week, writing, “Drill rap videos are fueling violence among rival gangs across our city.” He also gave an interview with Fox5NY about the issue, where he claimed there had 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.”

Complex points out that Hot 97’s DJ Drewski has also reacted to the recent shootings, saying he’d no longer be playing diss tracks on his radio shows. “I’m not supporting no more diss/gang music!,” he wrote on his Instagram story. “If ya dissing each other in the songs, don’t even send it to me…We are losing too many young men and women to the streets!” Other NYC DJs, including Power 105 DJ Gabe P and D-Teck, followed suit.

Rising Brooklyn drill rapper Fivio Foreign, meanwhile, emphasized that the music isn’t behind the violence, telling TMZ, “It’s not the music that’s killin’ people, it’s the music that’s helpin’ n____s get out the hood.”