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Banned UK drill videos have resurfaced on Pornhub

30 drill videos were removed from YouTube back in May...

The conflict between producers, rappers and promoters of UK drill and legal authorities continues as numerous videos that were removed from YouTube in May have resurfaced on Pornhub.

Over 30 UK drill rap videos were removed from YouTube after London Metropolitan police claimed they incited violence. The crackdown on the genre and its artists has also found five members of UK drill group 1011 being banned from making music without police permission after a new and unprecedented court order was passed in June.

The unprecedented targeting of UK drill and its artists has been widely criticised and been described as “ineffective, impractical and unjust”. Now, backlash continues as drill and drill-affiliated videos have started to resurface on adult entertainment website Pornhub.

Veteran UK rap figurehead Tim Westwood had been uploading “Crib Sessions” videos with drill collectives BSIDE, 1011 and Zone over the past number of months and these were among the videos removed from YouTube as part of the ban. In the past number of days these videos, among other videos by 1011 have started appearing on Pornhub as a way of retaliating against their removal.

All of this comes in the midst of an ongoing debate surrounding the alleged links between grime and drill music to violent crime in London. As the debate has progressed, members of the London music community have been invited to the house of commons to discuss the matter. 

"There's a clear correlation between the success of black music and artists of colour, and the dogged determination of the media to paint young people and their potential role models negatively," said Harjeet Sahota, a member of the London Independent Youth Safety Advisory Board, as reported by RA. "It's patronising and damaging. When we look at the subject matter of our favourite genres — such as grime and drill — it's drug, sex and violence, which is not unique to these genres."