Injunction banning UK drill MCs Skengdo & AM from performing music lifted after two years

News

The injunction that stopped London MCs Skengdo & AM performing UK drill music has been lifted after two years.

Speaking about the interim gang injunction, AM posted on Instagram, “After two long challenging years, the injunction is finally over, back to doing what we know best.”

The inunction was initially put in place in 2018. In January 2019, the MCs were subsequently sentenced to nine months in jail, suspended for two years. A statement from the Metropolitan Police stated both men breached their injunction when they “performed drill music that incited and encouraged violence against rival gang members and then posted it on social media.”

The statement continued, “The injunction was originally made against the individuals as they were members of a gang in Lambeth and were associated with the escalating gang violence in the borough.”

When the injunction was initially ordered, both artists’ manager, TK, told the Press Association that neither Doyley or Malinga were involved in gang violence. He also said that one of the videos of them performing that had been uploaded online without either artists’ consent.

Skengdo & AM returned to music the day after the injunction lifted with ‘#410 In Spain’, alongside Gullypabs.

The end of the injunction comes at a time that the Police are said to be “cracking down” on UK drill videos. Two Plugged In videos, the freestyle series headed up by Fumez The Engineer on YouTube channel Pressplay Media, were taken down earlier this week.

Speaking about that in an Instagram post, Fumez said, “For everyone that’s asking, the 156 Plugged In was removed today by police. ‘Active Gangs’ was also removed today by police. They are saying they’re inciting violence and throwing certain gang signs that are antagonising to the opposition, or whatever, whatever. Most of the time I don’t even know what the gang signs are, I’ll be real with you. That’s the situation.

“I’ll be taking more precautions on YouTube, in terms of the releases being slightly more censored, because the Police are cracking down on drill right now.”

In a recent feature on the filmmakers driving the UK drill scene for DJ Mag, Sam Davies wrote that, despite UK drill being targeted for the increase in knife and gun-related attacks in the UK, and especially in London, research shows that stronger links between violence and council cuts and youth cuts exist. You can read that feature here.

DJ Mag also recently ran a feature on the increase in the number of UK criminal trials using rap lyrics and music videos as evidence, a trend that disproportionately affects young Black men and worries many in legal and creative fields.