Music industry figures and management have responded to the announcement that NSW Police will be censoring rapper's from posting and promoting "violence" on social media. The intial report also claimed that the police did not have power to shut down shows, mainly for Western Sydney, acclaimed and revolutionary rap group One Four.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Acting Assistant Commissioner Jason Weinstein stated that “Drill music and songs (in some cases) are being weaponised to basically inflame a conflict with another side. We are still seeing that trend where drill rapping is being used to talk about crimes being committed for purposes of antagonising an opposition,
“We don’t have the power to stop anything such as concerts or songs or what people post. So it goes back to the moderators like YouTube, Snapchat and those social media platforms. They have certain expectations and their own policies around showing violence and things that can be posted and can’t be."
Famed group OneFour have had a long history of their careers being censored and shut down by Police, with numerous shows and tours being shut down and cancelled throughout 2019, forcing the group to perform shows secretly or not at all.
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The group's manager, Ricky Simandjuntak has today spoken to the Sydney Morning Herald to respond to the claims that the Police did not shut down their shows.
“Usually, when it comes to shows, they don’t shut us down directly, so they press the venue, threaten to investigate past discrepancies, and put pressure on venues and agents not to do business with OneFour," he said.
"We’ve had cases where they’ve asked festival promoters or venues not to book OneFour. We’re used to it by now; when you’re the first out of the gate, you get made an example of, and the NSW Police are often trying to make an example of OneFour.
"But they should’ve learned their lesson last time; when you try to ban something, that’s the way to get it popping.”
According to criminologist and associate dean at the University Of Sydney, the push to ban drill music may result in a boost for the genre.
"Without taking anything away from the music of OneFour, the NSW police have been the best thing to happen to them from a publicity standpoint. They’ve fed straight into their narrative of being authentic, which in turn has made them more popular, so the police have kicked an own goal there," Lee stated.
“It comes back to the aesthetic of not liking what’s being said and not liking the people who are saying it, people from minority backgrounds. Country music is full of domestic violence, same with folk music, rock and roll. Are we looking for the reality in those genres?”
