One year on from the night of his brother’s fatal stabbing in Betts Park, south east London, Jhemar stands at the site of Michael Jonas’s murder.
Kemani, the 18-year-old son of Mark Duggan, whose death sparked the 2011 London riots, photographed at the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham. Rapping under the moniker Bandokay, he is a member of the leading UK drill crew OFB.
“People know where I’m coming from, and that what I’m saying in my music is a reality for me,”
Police tape marking off an area following the fatal stabbing of a 23-year-old man inside Marcus Lipton Community Centre, Loughborough Junction, south London.
Pacman is one of the most prolific rap and drill music video directors in London. His YouTube channel, Pacman TV, features over 2000 videos uploaded, filmed over five years. It is a major platform for up-and-coming drill artists to be seen and heard.
Police question young men on Camberwell Green, south London.
On set of a Pacman TV UK drill video shoot on Rye Lane in Peckham, south east London.
Taped-off bus stop in Camberwell, south east London.
Franklyn Addo is a rapper and Team Leader for Redthread, a charity which places youth workers in hospitals across the UK to support young victims of violence. He is born and raised in Hackney, east London, where he now works at Homerton Hospital.
“When you grow up on a council estate, all you know is what your friends are on. Especially when you’re 13 or 14. You know when people say you are who your friends are? It’s true.”
Leading UK drill music producers M1 On The Beat and MK The Plug. They are perhaps the two most influential shapers of the modern UK drill genre as it has grown over recent years. They explain that making music saved them from difficult circumstances.
HighRise use youth and music culture to create engaging theatre, raise awareness about social issues and challenge stereotypes. With the UK Drill Project, the organisation have used the stage to explore the human stories behind drill music and the genre’s uncertain connection to rising youth violence in London.
Broadwater Farm estate, Tottenham — the epicentre of the London riots in 2011, following the killing of 29-year-old Mark Duggan. Local young people, including UK drill group OFB, call this road “Front Street”.
Demetri has lived on Draper Estate, Elephant & Castle, his whole life. His block and bedroom window sits in the shadow of Strata SE1, a towering skyscraper that has been built as the local area has become gentrified. Having become an advocate for solutions to youth violence in his community, working to mentor younger boys at risk of exclusion at his secondary school, and campaigning multiple times in Parliament, he now studies BA Criminology at Goldsmiths University.
Youth worker and writer Ciaran Thapar has been documenting the rise of youth violence since 2015. He has done so whilst working with vulnerable young people in schools, community centres and prisons. His first book, Cut Short: Youth, Violence and Loss in the City, is forthcoming from Penguin Viking UK.
“I’m trying to get out the hood, and the easiest way of doing that is making music.”
Teenagers Bandokay and Double Lz, the two main members of leading UK drill group OFB, pose on their native Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham, north London. The third member of the group, SJ, was found guilty for murder in 2019 and faces at least 18 years in prison.
“The mask is a brand, a symbol. It’s how you know man’s still active.”
LD, or Scribz, is the frontman of Brixton Hill drill crew 67 (“six-seven”). After several years as a leading London MC, and arguably the founding pioneer of the UK drill genre, in late-2019 he was found guilty of operating a class A “county lines” drugs network to the Home Counties.
Brother 16-year-old Jhemar Jonas and father Michael Jonas Senior sit at the site of 17-year-old Michael Jonas’ murder in Betts Park, south east London, a year on from his death.
Joshua Adeyemi grew-up on Brandon Estate in Kennington, south London, where multiple boys have been murdered in gang-related attacks over recent years. He was granted a full academic scholarship to Eton College sixth-form, and now studies at Cambridge University.
One year on from the murder of a 23 year old Glendon Spence in Loughborough Junction
A forensic team collects evidence after a fatal stabbing inside Marcus Lipton Community Centre, in Loughborough Junction, south London.
“If there wasn’t such thing as music, the crime rate would be higher. People in London are bored. If you’re on the roads and you’re not doing music, then what else are you doing?”
In an unprecedented legal step, representing the ongoing clampdown on UK drill music in the face of rising youth violence, Digga D was banned from making music without police permission in 2018. He is one of many drill MCs whose freedoms have been curtailed due to the success of his music. This photo is taken in the kitchen of an Indian pub in Queensbury, north west London, where he was shooting a music video.
Disnee, or Dis, is a MC from Deptford, south east London. As the only female member of her group of friends, Dis has often had to shoulder a disproportionate amount of emotional toil and practical responsibility when faced with the death of people close to her. She says this is common in communities across London, as girls and women usually have to lend most support to young men who are suffering from the trauma involved in participating in youth violence.
Children play in Betts Park, south east London, at the site of Michael Jonas’ murder, a year on from his death.
Used bullet shells lie on the ground at a clay pigeon shooting range in Enfield, north London. Music videographer Pacman takes artists and influencers shooting and documents their competition in a video series on his YouTube channel, Pacman TV, called “Bootings”.
Colourful smoke grenades explode on a Pacman TV video shoot by the entrance of Peckham Rye overground train station, south east London.
Betts Park, south east London, at the site of Michael Jonas Junior’s murder.
Loughborough Junction
Switching the estates of Kennington for the boarding houses of Eton College sixth form, Joshua Adeyemi has recently been offered a place at Cambridge University.