Dj Pretty Boy Tank J Money Beef
'Who wants state of war with Sydney's realest?'
Updated
Within the boxing betwixt Australian drill rappers OneFour and the constabulary
Just a month ago rap grouping OneFour was on the cusp of making information technology.
It had millions of streams, major label offers and was about to embark on its first national tour.
Today one-half the group is backside confined, its manager has been prohibited from interacting with group members and the OneFour bout was shut downwardly after concerns were raised almost public safety.
This is the culmination of an unprecedented operation by NSW Police.
NSW Police told Background Briefing they had actively prevented OneFour from taking to stages across Australia. Sergeant Nathan Trueman wants the group's members to know they won't be performing in front of Australian fans someday soon.
"I'grand going to apply everything in my power to make your life miserable, until you stop doing what you're doing," he said.
"Every attribute of your life. I'chiliad going to go far uncomfortable for you."
Background Conference
The war between police and Australia's newest music sensation
Listen to this investigation and more by subscribing to the Background Briefing podcast.
- About
- Subscribe
- RSS
Sergeant Trueman, an officer with the state's loftier-profile Strike Strength Raptor, has been instrumental in the police operation against the group. He'due south even gone every bit far as requesting streaming services remove OneFour's music from their libraries — a request that was denied.
According to Triple J's group music managing director, Richard Kingsmill, the state of affairs is unprecedented.
"I tin't think of whatever Australian artists in the fourth dimension that I've been following music whose gigs and tours take been cancelled," he said.
NSW Police has gone to boggling lengths to end the group performing and told Background Briefing it was willing to use powers designed to target outlaw motorcycle gangs and terrorists.
But the use of such powers doesn't sit down well with sometime NSW director of public prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery.
"To encounter this sort of legislation sought to be applied in circumstances similar this with a group of people desire to come together to play music, that really is a perversion of the original intention of the legislation," he said.
Police believe information technology is justified, claiming parallels betwixt violent crimes in Western Sydney and the grouping'due south lyrics to advise OneFour poses a threat to public safety.
Who are OneFour rappers and what is drill music?
OneFour is one of the biggest musical acts in Australia right now. Its members have simply been releasing music professionally for the past 12 months, but it has amassed 27 million views on YouTube and over 30 million streams on Spotify worldwide.
There are four official members of OneFour: Spenny, YP, J-Emz and Lekks. In music videos, they wear Adidas and Nike tracksuits, occasionally taking it up a notch with designer shirts and bags from Givenchy and Louis Vuitton. Two of the members — YP and Lekks — as well wear balaclavas and facemasks.
That's because the courts accept issued them with non-association orders, prohibiting them from interacting with each other. OneFour fifty-fifty raps well-nigh it.
"Why practise you think our faces are hidden? The gang's on strict conditions." — OneFour, Spot the difference
The group is credited with existence Australia's first drill rappers. Drill is a darker, grittier genre of hip-hop that tin be pretty violent and lyrically confronting.
In the UK, drill has become synonymous with the so-called "postcode wars", with rival groups from different suburbs dissing each other, sparking a cycle of musical retaliations, co-ordinate to BBC Radio DJ Kenny Allstar.
"A lot of drill artists talk about what they've seen, it's social commentary virtually what they're around, the content is more than raw," he said.
United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland police have stopped some drill rappers from performing in public and had their music videos removed from YouTube, and they accept convinced the courts to stop artists from interacting with one some other and saying certain lyrics.
There's a long history of police force butting heads with hip hop artists, according to Dr Rebecca Sheehan, who researches the link between social identity and music at Macquarie Academy.
"The FBI issued a cease and desist lodge to NWA," she said. "When they refused to finish releasing their music, stop distributing it and refused to finish playing concerts, local metropolitan police around the U.s. get the idea to start shutting concerts downward for them."
Simply in Australia, this kind of conflict betwixt law enforcement and rappers is unprecedented.
Lyrics as show
In November, earlier OneFour's tour was cancelled, YP went to Parramatta Commune Courtroom seeking to vary his bail conditions so he could travel interstate. In the hearing, the crown prosecutor tendered an boggling constabulary brief near the group, in which the police claimed its lyrics referred to criminal action.
In the brief, the police allege OneFour is office of a broader gang representing Mountain Druitt and the outer-western suburbs of Sydney, and that information technology is at war with a group representing Sydney's inner-west, which they say goes by the moniker 21 District.
The police force claim these gangs are responsible for acts of violence stretching back to 2011 — including multiple stabbings, public brawls, fights in pubs, and an assault in a shisha bar.
Here'southward how the police brief describes the greater-western Sydney gang:
"The individuals are primarily male and aged approximately betwixt fifteen to 20 years. The majority of individuals involved have been described as of 'Pacific Islander' appearance."
The police brief quotes lyrics equally evidence OneFour is associated with this gang and its criminal activities.
"21 what, one got knocked, hah! I gauge that makes them 20."
— OneFour, The Bulletin.
Co-ordinate to the brief, these lyrics and other OneFour tracks reference the murder of a fellow member of 21 Commune in Parramatta.
"You can definitely draw a comparison between the lyrics and offences that have occurred," Sergeant Trueman said.
This connection is something OneFour denies. The group's manager, Ricky Simandjuntak, said its music told stories from the streets, but that making a literal link to criminal acts was incorrect.
"It's pure honesty near what they run into and struggle with on a twenty-four hour period-to-twenty-four hour period basis," he said.
"Fine art is open to interpretation, you don't accept to take everything literally, it's meant to make you feel something."
When YP, who wrote the lyric, heard it was being used as evidence, he was disappointed.
"That sucks, I only came upwardly with it one mean solar day in my room," he said.
"I idea it sounded absurd, hey? I was like, 'yep it's a sick line!"
Music is a mode to move forwards, according to J-Emz.
"Us rappers, y'all know what I mean? We've gotten out of that," he said.
The others concur.
"If someone makes a pic or a video game, information technology doesn't hateful the video game or the person that fabricated it is telling them to go do this," said Spenny.
"We're changing our lives, let us practice what we need to exercise to become improve people."
Using lyrical content as evidence was disturbing to Kingsmill.
"The world can be a really unsafe and unpleasant identify to be in," he said. "And then artists have got to express that and talk about information technology and reveal it to their listeners and their fans.
"It'southward no dissimilar from literature, music cannot be taken literally."
But the constabulary disagree and Sergeant Trueman believes OneFour's music is inciting violence.
"We tin can't reduce the hazard by any other ways, besides cancelling the concert," he said. "Essentially, nosotros're saying that the music that they're promoting is inciting violence."
OneFour's tape
In July 2018, two members of OneFour, Lekks and YP, were arrested after a pub fight in Rooty Hill.
A court found Lekks got into an argument with two drunk patrons over the pokies and was kicked out. He returned soon afterwards, this time with YP and another associate of the group.
YP and the associate and so assaulted the ii patrons. YP used a wooden chair leg that he had brought with him, hitting ane of the men 3 times in the caput.
They were charged and pleaded guilty. YP was released on bond.
The judge in the case said the two drunk victims were making "racial comments, maybe extending to slurs", but that the assaults were "appalling" and "vicious".
These court cases were lurking in the background when OneFour announced its first national bout in November to much fanfare.
Information technology announced four dates across Australia and one show in New Zealand. They were backed by Live Nation, the biggest music promoters in Australia.
It was a huge moment for the grouping and a chance to plough its online virality into existent-world coin, success and fame.
The tour that never was
The court granted YP's bail variation, letting him travel for the tour on the condition that his mum travelled with him. Just this victory for OneFour was short-lived.
A few days after his hearing, the beginning show on the tour, in Melbourne, was cancelled.
Triple J's Hack program obtained a letter sent from Victoria Law to the Melbourne venue, threatening a review of their liquor licence if the show went ahead.
Sergeant Trueman confirmed to Background Conference that NSW had been in bear on with interstate colleagues most OneFour's concerts. Victoria Police confirmed that it did meet with the venue, but said whatever decision to cancel events was made by the event organiser and venue operator.
A few days later, the Adelaide performance was scrapped. SA Police declined to comment on a series of questions asked past Groundwork Briefing.
The entire national tour was eventually cancelled, with statements from venues blaming "unavoidable circumstances".
OneFour was more direct and pointed the finger squarely at NSW Police.
"This sets a dangerous precedent in police force ultimately determining which artists can and tin can't play at music venues in Australia," a statement from the group's management said.
How Raptor went from hunting bikies to rappers
In 2009, following a brutal bikie brawl at Sydney Drome, NSW Law created Strike Force Raptor, a unit dedicated to cracking downwards on outlaw motorcycle gangs. Since and so Raptor has put away some of Australia's well-nigh notorious bikies, from the Hells Angels to the Comancheros.
Only recently information technology has turned its sights to OneFour. Raptor is working with the newly established Strike Strength Imbara, made up of detectives and analysts, to investigate the feud between the greater-west and inner-west groups and their links to hip hop artists such as OneFour.
Sergeant Trueman explained the history of this apparent gang war.
"Initially you lot had small acts of assaults, but and so it started to develop and get bigger, to the point where nosotros've now had public place stabbings, nosotros've had drive-by shootings, nosotros've had large affrays in the public eye," he said.
To the police, the counterfoil of concerts and the disruption of OneFour'due south music careers aren't controversial. They are the kind of tactics the strike force would accept used against motorbike gangs.
"If the Comancheros started singing a song and trying to call out and provoke the Hells Angels, and they wanted a concert, the public would expect us to shut that down," said Sergeant Trueman.
And for the first fourth dimension, NSW Police confirmed its office in actively stopping OneFour's concerts.
"We are shutting down their concerts, but it's to stop the violence. Nosotros oasis't had it since the concerts take been close downwardly," Sergeant Trueman said.
"I desire these kids to succeed, I want them to go alee and do something, but while there's violence I tin't allow information technology."
NSW Police has previously said that it just provides advice to venues, and it'south ultimately the venue's responsibleness whether the shows go ahead. Simply Sergeant Trueman made it articulate that law requests made it impossible for OneFour concerts to be financially viable.
"I provide all the data to the venues and they'll say things like, 'Oh, how many police force am I going to demand to get this event to get ahead?' And we're saying, 'Well, yous need 10 amount of police force'," he said.
"The cost of the tickets are never going to cover the corporeality of law they'll need to attempt and safely run an effect like this.
"I'll do that for every event in New South Wales until the violence stops."
Simply shutting downwardly concerts isn't the just way law are exerting pressure on OneFour.
On the forenoon earlier the ARIA awards at The Star casino, J-Emz was handed an exclusion society by police banning him from entering The Star until farther notice.
Then that evening, instead of pulling upwards to the ballroom overlooking Darling Harbour and rubbing shoulders with Australian music'southward biggest names, the group gathered at their recording studio.
"They could take served it whenever," J-Emz said. "They probably got news that nosotros were at the ARIA barbecues and parties."
Sergeant Trueman told Background Briefing that Strike Strength Raptor could become even further and use laws that requite police extremely broad powers to control a person'southward travel, associations and fifty-fifty their internet use, and then long every bit police can say the restrictions will terminate serious criminal offense.
The Serious Law-breaking Prevention Orders were passed in NSW in 2016 and are unremarkably used confronting bikie gangs and terrorists, but the use of similar laws by UK police against drill rappers has Sergeant Trueman interested.
"Y'all expect at London, they're implementing Serious Criminal offence Prevention orders," he said.
"That's something that nosotros have here in our back pocket nosotros could potentially use."
Mr Cowdery said he wasn't aware of these laws always beingness used against someone who wasn't associated with terrorism or outlaw motorcycle gangs.
"Those are really the categories of people for whom this legislation was intended," he said.
"What we're seeing is legislation which might arguably accept been justified for the prevention of very serious crime in the community being subsumed, beingness distorted and applied to people who desire to play music."
The Aftermath
Only one evidence on the bout went ahead, in Auckland, and fifty-fifty then only one of OneFour'south members made it to the stage: Spenny.
YP was in prison, J-Emz was held in immigration detention upon his arrival over prior convictions, before being deported, and Lekks, who had been jailed earlier in the year, was represented past his brother who covered his face with a t-shirt.
Simply fifty-fifty though the group had been shut down, separated, deported and jailed, its legal bug weren't over.
When grouping members they arrived back at Sydney airdrome law officers from Strike Forcefulness Raptor were waiting for them.
They handed OneFour'south manager, Ricky Simandjuntak, an official warning. He was told that if he was seen consorting with, or even communicating with, the ii remaining OneFour members who weren't in prison he would be committing a criminal offence.
NSW laws usually used to disrupt serious organised criminal offense were now beingness used to stop him from seeing or communicating with the artists he represented.
Back in the area
OneFour members started their music careers at the Mountain Druitt Street University, a Ted Noffs Foundation-funded youth middle complete with a recording studio.
Mountain Druitt is one of the nigh disadvantaged suburbs in the state. Its unemployment charge per unit is eleven per cent, nearly twice the state average.
Upwards of 90 per cent of residents of the area identify as having a non-Australian ancestry, and more than 60 per cent speak a language other than English.
It is a suburb that has faced its fair share of stigmatisation from the media.
SBS's controversial documentary series Struggle Street was gear up in Mountain Druitt. It was accused by the local Mayor of being "poverty porn" and criticised past residents.
For the young people at the Mount Druitt Street University, OneFour is the biggest thing to come up out of the area.
"Mount Druitt had such a bad proper name for itself," ane immature girl said. "And soon every bit OneFour came in, everyone wants to be here and they've gotten rid of the bad name."
The mode OneFour has captured the attention of youth in the area is no surprise to Winnie Dunn, a Tongan-Australian writer who grew upward in that location.
"To see OneFour come to prominence by telling their own stories and really getting the nuances of what it ways to grow up as a Pacific Islander in Mount Druitt," she said.
"Pacific Islanders in Commonwealth of australia for so long have been starved for representation, the only representative we have at the moment is Chris Lilley, a white guy who puts on brown face.
"It is going to exist actually pitiful for me to come across that if the police do win and stop OneFour from e'er having a viable career, they stop generations of Pacific Islander Australians ever having careers that are exterior of the stereotypes of being a security guard or being a footballer."
Sergeant Trueman said he knows it's hard for young people to grow up in suburbs where opportunities are deficient and he would be happy for OneFour members to continue to pursue their music careers.
But before he lets upwards, he wants to see an end to violence betwixt the rival groups of youths, and he'd similar the content of OneFour's music to change.
"Why can't they sing nigh something else?" he asked.
"It's tough to live in Mount Druitt, sing about that. Speak nearly how brilliantly beautiful your wife is.
"I don't know, I'm not a songwriter."
Earlier YP was taken away to a cell in Oberon Correctional Centre he said OneFour would be dorsum.
"I'll proceed to write music, even behind those walls," he said.
"The mean solar day is coming shortly where all four of us artists will exist there on stage together."
Credits
- Reporter: Osman Faruqi
- Editor: Scott Mitchell
- Executive Producer: Alice Brennan
- Supervising Producers: Ben Sveen and Gina McKeon
- Researchers: Meghna Bali and Alex Tighe
- Sound Producers: Leila Shunnar and Ingrid Wagner
Topics: hip-hop, music-industry, music-awards, internet-culture, law, laws, mountain-druitt-2770, sydney-2000, melbourne-3000, new-zealand, adelaide-5000
First posted
Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-13/australian-drill-rappers-onefour-battle-police/11779746
0 Response to "Dj Pretty Boy Tank J Money Beef"
Post a Comment