Deeping It: Colonialism, Culture & Criminalisation of UK Drill (Inklings #18)

Deeping It analyses drill’s fight against moral panic and its fraught relationship with the police and political authority in the UK, exemplified by constant censorship, racism, and moments such as when a drill duo became the first people in British legal history to receive a prison sentence for simply performing a song.

Policing, policy and criminalisation are the cornerstones of colonial suppression; art, self-expression and collective action are beacons of resistance. Deeping It places drill firmly in the latter category, tracing its production and criminalisation across borders and eras of the British Empire, exploring drill’s artistic singularity but also its inherent threat as a Black artform in a world that prioritises whiteness.

Intervening on this discourse steeped in anti-Blackness, this Inkling ‘deeps’ how the criminalisation of UK drill cannot be disentangled from histories, technologies, and realities of colonialism and consumerism.