Eric Adams Had No Idea What Drill Music Was, Now He Wants It Gone

In response to the untimely death of 18-year-old drill rapper Jayquan McKenley (AKA Chii Wvttz), who was shot and killed outside a Brooklyn studio on February 6, Adams held a speech addressing violence in drill music.

Adams admitted he "had no idea what drill rapping was,” nor was he aware of its roots in the burgeoning Brooklyn scene. But upon asking Jordan Coleman, his son who works for Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, Adams said he found the videos “alarming.”

“We pulled Trump off Twitter … yet we are allowing music displaying of guns, violence.”

— NYC Mayor Eric Adams (D), after his son sent him drill rap videos, says he will try to get the videos banned from social media. pic.twitter.com/ATGmhpi4Bo

— The Recount (@therecount) February 11, 2022

“We’re allowing music displaying of guns, violence — we’re allowing it to stay on these sites,” Adams cited as a source of the violence that has claimed the lives of rappers like Pop Smoke and Tdott Woo, who was killed days prior to McKenley.

Drawing parallels to Twitter’s banning of Donald Trump, Adams called for social media to censor drill.

“You have a civic and corporate responsibility,” he shared in a press conference, arguing that the dissemination of drill on social media is used to “over-proliferate violence in communities. This is contributing to the violence that we are seeing all over the country. It is one of the rivers we have to dam."

The struggle between drill and the establishment is well-documented, with McKenley’s own music exploring police altercations, criminal justice and a lack of social support from the city, which now aims to put an end to the music he used as a release.

"Jayquan was a good kid," McKenley's mother’s cousin Shawn Holmes told the Daily News. “He had a very kind heart and he had a passion for rapping. Music was something he was passionate about. I heard he had just left out of the studio.”

Though it’s unclear exactly what the New York Mayor’s proposal means for the future of drill, he assured the press that he will be sitting down with “social media executives” and “some very top rappers” to form a coalition — and we have to wonder who Adams’ top rappers are.

Photo via Getty