Mayor Pushes To Ban 'Drill' Rap On Social Media After BK Killing

BROOKLYN, NY — Mayor Eric Adams is taking aim at a Brooklyn music scene after the fatal shooting of an of an 18-year-old rapper in Bed-Stuy.

The mayor said Friday that he plans to push social media companies to ban the "drill" rap genre from their sites given its depictions of violence.

The plea comes days after Jayquan McKenley, who performed as Chii Wittz, was shot sitting in a car on Greene Avenue. He was the second young drill rapper killed in Brooklyn in recent weeks.

"We pulled Trump off Twitter because what he was spewing, yet we are allowing music displaying guns, violence. We are allowing it to stay on those sites," Adams said. "We are alarmed by the use of social media to really over proliferate violence in our communities."

Drill rap — known for its gritty, often violent lyrics — first came to Brooklyn after reaching popularity in Chicago, according to GQ.

It gained prominence most recently under rapper Pop Smoke, who was fatally shot in 2020 during a tip to California. One of the recently killed Brooklyn rappers, Tdott Woo, was a protege of Pop Smoke, according to reports.

Law enforcement haven't officially tied McKenley's death to the drill rap scene, though he was shot after attending a recording session at a Brooklyn studio, according to the Daily News.

Adams call to ban the music genre has already sparked backlash from those who have likened it to politicians attempts to censor rap music in the 1990s and 2000s.

"Banning music, or videos, won’t stop social conditions that need to be mended with care, not censorship or cuffs," an op-ed in Complex magazine writes.

Still, some DJs have decided not to play certain rap songs that threaten other artists by name in the wake of the Brooklyn killings.

Adams' comments come as he pushes a sweeping plan aimed at ending the ongoing "public health crisis" of gun violence in the city.

In the days after McKenley's death, Adams offered a tearful public apology to his family and a call to action to city agencies, who Adams said should have caught the warning signs that he was headed on a wrong path.

"I didn't know Jayquan, but his death hit me hard," Adams said. "The more I found out about Jayquan's story, the more I saw how many times he had been failed by a system that is supposed to help boys like him