‘Violent’ rap videos banned by YouTube have now resurfaced on a popular adult site
Following YouTube’s deletion of a number of supposedly ‘violent’ music videos, these clips have now resurfaced on popular adult entertainment website Pornhub.
Over the last two months, it was revealed that a number of music videos of the drill music genre had been removed at the behest of UK police, with the genre being blamed for a rise in gang behaviour in Britain.
“Drill music is associated with lyrics which are about glamourising serious violence: murder, stabbings,” explained Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick in an interview last month. “They describe the stabbings in great detail, joy and excitement. Extreme violence against women is often talked about.”
“Most particularly, in London we have gangs who make drill videos and in those videos, they taunt each other. They say what they’re going to do to each other and specifically what they are going to do to who.”
It was soon revealed that this ban had gone so far as to see a drill group being forced to report to police before any performance, or music video filming that they plan to undergo. Even then, police would have to be on hand to ensure that the musicians did not violate the order handed down by the court. Needless to say, UK police are taking this pretty seriously.
However, the battle has now spilled over into a rather unlikely place, with the previously-banned videos now resurfacing on Pornhub.
https://twitter.com/ManicTheOnly/status/1013564149488635904
As Dazed reports, a number of tracks from DJ Tim Westwood’s ‘Crib Sessions’ have turned up on the site. While Westwood had been criticised for his promotion of drill artists in the past, a number of artists banned by YouTube, such as 1011, and BSIDE, have now been uploaded to Pornhub’s website.
While this approach seems to be due to the fact that Pornhub is moderated to a far lesser degree than YouTube, it remains to be seen how long these videos will stay on the website until they too receive a message from the UK police.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that the website has dabbled in music, with Pornhub previously having launched its own record label, and even hosting Kanye West’s The Life Of Pablo back in early 2016 when it was still a Tidal-exclusive release.
Check out an example of banned drill videos (on YouTube):
This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.