[15][16] Censorship of UK drill lyrics through vocal cuts and mutes is sometimes done to avoid them being used during their prosecution by the police;[17] for example, "shh" is used in songs to replace the names of people, weapons and criminal acts.
[18] 150 (now known as GBG), a group from the Angell Town Estate in Brixton, is often credited with pioneering UK drill music, with 150 members Stickz, M Dargg and Grizzy (stylized as GR1ZZY) being dedicated exponents of the early style.
[22] In early 2017, "Kennington Where It Started" was released by the Harlem Spartans, considered by fans to have turned UK drill from an underground genre into a mainstream one.
[26] The sentence resulted in a letter being signed by 65 people that was addressed to the Metropolitan Police, calling upon them to stop issuing gang injunctions and stating that musicians should be given the rights of freedom of speech and creative expression.
[32] Canadian musician Drake did a "Behind Barz" freestyle for Link Up TV in 2018, where he rapped over a UK drill beat.
Artists around the country have appeared and become prominent creators within the scene, such as SmuggzyAce and S.White of Birmingham group 23 Drillas and SV of Nottingham.
[55][56] UK drill, alongside grime, has been cited as a reason for the expansion of Multicultural London English to other countries, including Finland[57] and Australia.
[63] The aesthetic of UK drill videos was described by Jonathan Ilan, of the University of London, in a paper within The British Journal of Criminology; the aesthetic included groups of young men, usually near council houses and wearing a variety of streetwear, using hand gestures to represent a variety of things, including tributes to their friends that were dead or jailed.
"[65] A 2021 book regarding music genres noted that "rather than personalized nicknames, performers strip themselves of any individuality or character so as to become...conflated with their gang.
"[18] The genre's violent lyrics have been cited by police, MPs, journalists and others in positions of potentially significant influence as the reason for a climb in the rate of knife crimes in London.
[7][8] In one instance, then 17-year-old rapper M-Trap who had written lyrics about knife attacks, was part of a four-person group that stabbed a 15-year-old boy to death, for which he received a life sentence.
[66] Judge Anthony Leonard QC told Simpson, "You suggested [the lyrics] were just for show but I do not believe that, and I suspect you were waiting for the right opportunity for an attack.
These stories...appear to have fed into the vague police cultures that sustain racialized stop and search practices in the capital.
"[68]An article by Ciaran Thapar states that, rather than addressing the causes of youth violence, "those in power are content to target the music that rises, like steam from a pressure cooker, out of these conditions.
[70] Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick blamed some videos for fuelling a surge in murders and violent crime in London, singling out drill music.
[73]In late 2018, South London-born driller Drillminister created a track called "Political Drillin", which was broadcast on Channel 4 News and used comments made by Members of Parliament, attempting to highlight their own hypocrisy in using violent language.