City Research Online

Abstract

Rap music is frequently admitted into court as incriminating ‘evidence’ that stereotypically portrays defendants as ‘criminally minded’, ‘gang-affiliated’ desperadoes, whose creative output becomes proof of their ‘bad character’. Writing against such racist mythologies that (re) produce stereotypical associations between Black music genres and ‘criminality’, rap is approached instead as an eloquent testimony of racial injustice that puts the legal-penal system on the stand. Drawing on UK drill music as the latest rap subgenre to be targeted as criminogenic, this chapter outlines the carceral logics and tactics turn Black artistic expression into a criminal offence—arguing that the performative violence in drill exposes the actual violence with which it is suppressed, in ways that urge us to rethink our relationship with ‘the law’ and ‘justice’ as critical scholars and political actors alike.

Publication Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	© 2026 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Publisher Keywords:	Rap on trial, Criminalisation of rap music, Racism and criminal injustice
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races M Music and Books on Music > M Music
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs School of Policy & Global Affairs > Department of Sociology & Criminology
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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