The New York Police Department has removed at least three NYC drill rappers from Rolling Loud New York’s lineup.
Queens’ biggest festival is kicking off on Friday (Sept. 23), but according to The New York Times, Sha Ek, 22Gz, and Ron Suno won’t be there to celebrate at Citi Field.
The NYPD’s judgment closely mirrors their 2019 Rolling Loud decision to pull 22Gz and Pop Smoke from that year’s festival lineup. They cited their affiliations “with recent acts of violence citywide” as the primary reason for their decision.
“The New York City Police Department believes if these individuals are allowed to perform, there will be a higher risk of violence,” an assistant NY police chief expressed in 2019.
Stanley Davis, also known as Noodles, a manager for Sha Ek, spoke about the police’s decision to pull his artist from the lineup, explaining that he’s not broken any laws or committed any crimes.
“The police try to associate what he’s doing with violence and negativity,” Davis noted. “They don’t respect that he’s an artist and entertainer trying to better himself and feed his family at 19 years old.”
Sha Ek tweeted in response to the NYPD’s decision claiming he still has love for Rolling Loud regardless of the circumstances. “Still got love for Rolling Loud,” he tweeted. “NYPD don’t want to see me win.”
NYPD’s swift last-minute actions against the three influential drill artists echo Mayor Eric Adams’ February 2022 sentiments regarding the NYC Hip-Hop subgenre. Adams expressed that the genre is alarming for glorifying guns and violence, linking it to gang affiliations, and needing to be dealt with.
“We pulled Trump off Twitter,” Adams said. “Yet we are allowing music, displaying of guns, violence. We’re allowing it to stay on these sites.”
“I had no idea what drill rapping was,” the NYC Mayor explained. “But I called my son, and he sent me some videos, and it is alarming. We are going to pull together the social media companies and sit down with them and tell them that you have a civic and corporate responsibility.”
On the heels of his comments in February 2022, Adams, 62, met with a faction of NY rappers, discussing ways to reduce the city’s gun violence. Artists like Fivio Foreign and B-Lovee met with the city leader to hear him out during the meeting. The aforementioned artists are still scheduled to appear and perform at Rolling Loud NYC in Queens.