Uk drill

 

UK Drill:

 

For this article I wanted to present a music genre that not everyone knows, or knows

well and understands its meaning and origins. This music genre is one of my all time favorites 

and should clearly take its place in OIB culture as it is representing modern day british music!

First of all, to trace the origins of this mouvement, we should go back to the birth land of all HipHop 

genres, the US, and, in this case, Chicago. In the early 2010’s, in the southside of the windy city, drill

music developed as a more violent style of “trap music”, very popular in the country at the time. 

This music was based on trap beats but slower, and was composed of violent and dark lyrics, 

showing the hard reality of gang life in Chicago’s south side ghetto.

 

The pioneers of this genre are (from left to right) Young chop the legendary producer who changed the

sound of hip hop at the time, Lil Reese, and most importantly Chief Keef, the rapper that made the 

style blow up with his hits songs “I don’t like” and “Love Sosa”.

At the time, the genre was still exploiting instrumentals similar to trap beats, but with the help of

underground Dj “DJ L”, producing tracks for a young G Herbo named Lil Herb at the time, drill music 

started to develop a new sound, that reappeared in London in 2012. 

In 2012, in the London district of Brixton, UK drill music was born, but was slowly developed in the 

underground scene until 2015, where the hard sound of uk drill influenced by Dj L and afro beats that 

we know today started to blow up, with artists such as Loski, Harlem Spartans, AM & Skendgo, Abrada 

Cadabra. Since 2017, a huge number of Uk artist exploited this sound as a way to communicate the 

hard lifestyle of poor communities in Great Britain.

 

Like most music genres, drill also comes with a dressing culture, which, influenced by London 

weather, is represented by big puffy jackets and ski masks.

 

Some of the most notable artist of this style of music, are rappers Digga D (my personal favorite), 

Headie one, Russ millions, Stav’o, Nito NB, SL, DigDat, V9, Unknown T, Tion Wayne, Poundz, Latts, 

OFB, producers 808 Melo, AXL beats, M1, Bkay, Gotcha, Ghosty, and others.

 

 

A big part of the scene developped throughout series of freestyle brought by the "Mixtape Madness" 

youtube chanel, bringing the famous series "Mad about bars" and "Next Up".

 

Uk drill lifestyle is also represented in the tv-show "Top Boy" (really recommend it), now produced by Canadian rapper Drake!

During 2019-20, New York artists such as 22gz and Sheff G used uk drill sounds as a way to renew the US sound over the years and, with the appearance of now dead artist Pop smoke and his hit song “Dior”, the genre exploded to an international scale, becoming the biggest musical wave of the year.

 R.I.P Pop Smoke :(

 

 

 

 

 

I personally love this music because of its energy, its strength and the huge musical work being the 

production. Also, having listened to this style for a certain time, I’m really happy to see the genre blow 

up that way, touch a new audience and I’m really waiting to see it develop in different forms in the future.

I strongly recommend you guys go and try to listen to uk drill music, as it could really be of your taste!