Brooklyn rapper Fivio Foreign is speaking out in defense of drill music in light of the recent backlash and negative stigma the Hip-Hop subgenre is receiving in the media and from cultural pundits.
The “Big Drip” creator, who recently suffered the loss of his close friend and affiliate TDott Woo after the rising rapper was fatally shot in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn, spoke with TMZ about the heightening discussion around drill music and whether it’s creating a black cloud over the communities from which it originates.
“This the drill community,” explained Fivio. “I know the police and everybody, they be looking at us like n*ggas is starting trouble. N*ggas ain’t really starting trouble—they tryna feed their kids. They tryna take away the drill music off the radio. They tryna stop it from being on the radio.”
He also argued that drill music provides a way out of a life of crime and poverty that would not otherwise be available to many of its artists. “It’s not the music that’s killing people, it’s the music that’s helping n*ggas from the hood get out the hood.”
The 31-year-old added, “We need that. If you take that from n*ggas, n*ggas will be in the hood killing each other and going crazy on each other.”
Fivio also addressed the proposed “Rap Music On Trial Bill,” which will ban prosecutors from using rap lyrics to convict, stating that the idea of basing a criminal conviction on the crux of a form of creative expression is ill-conceived, at best, being that other artforms promote similar themes as drill music.
“To me, that sh*t don’t make sense because it’s n*ggas out there that don’t even write they own music,” explained Fivio. “So if you going to indict n*ggas and lock n*ggas up over they music, then that means you gotta go lock Denzel [Washington] up for being a bad cop in Training Day… You can’t just target n****s cuz’ n*ggas making music, and they feel like that’s the lowest form of entertainment. ‘Why they rich? Why they buying these cars? Why they got this much? I don’t f*ck with that,” argued Fivio.
Drill music has become one of the more popular subgenres in Hip-Hop today, but has also received its fair share of critique due to what detractors perceive as the criminality, gang-affiliation, and violence that its artists and the music both represent and champion.
Over the last two years alone, more than a dozen drill artists and their associates have either been murdered (Pop Smoke, Nick Blixky) or charged with criminal acts (C Blu, Kay Flock) leading many to believe the lyrical content and imagery of drill music is a detriment to society.
Even popular DJs like Hot 97’s Drewski have taken it upon themselves to not play any diss records associated with drill artists on the radio in an attempt to not promote any impending violence. Only time will tell if other outlets will follow suit if the bloodshed and violence associated, rightly or wrongly, with the drill community continues.
Watch Fivio Foreign’s interview below.