The British police unit helping remove drill-music videos from the web
Project Alpha angers artists and free-speech advocates alike. But does it work?
“CENSORED” BEGINS like most pieces of drill music, a genre of rap. Dressed in black puffer jackets and balaclavas, members of the group “Zone 2”, who come from Peckham in south London, spit lines about their “opps” (enemies). But listen to the track on YouTube—where it has garnered 2.8m views—and you will notice something unusual. A ringing sound obscures certain words, such as the names of deceased gang rivals. This is probably not artistic choice. Some rappers now soften or mask their lyrics to avoid getting on the wrong side of the law.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Drill down”
Britain May 7th 2022
- Why is London so attractive to tainted foreign money?
- Life for Britons in care homes is still full of restrictions
- Britain is tackling river pollution by going after the wrong culprits
- The British police unit helping remove drill-music videos from the web
- Britain has become unexpectedly European
- British politics is stuck in a 1990s time-warp
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