The Cheat Sheet

What’s Drill Music, the Hip-Hop Genre Popularized by Pop Smoke and Others?

The music industry is mourning the loss of Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke, who was killed in a home invasion in Beverly Hills. Pop Smoke was a rising new star in the industry and was likely going to be one ...

How Chief Keef Helped Turn Chicago Drill Into a Global Phenomenon

Chicago drill sounded raw, dangerous and unmistakably local when I first heard it. Then Chief Keef, G Herbo, Lil Bibby and Lil Durk helped turn a Chicago movement into a global hip-hop force.
Chicago Reader

Dividing Chicago hip-hop into ‘Chance and friends’ and ‘the drill scene’ insults its richness and variety

Earlier this week Chance the Rapper announced he’d take over U.S. Cellular Field in September with Magnificent Coloring Day, a single-day festival packed with high-profile musicians: Skrillex, John ...
Forbes

With The Hip-Hop Industry In Flux, NYC Drill Is An Unlikely Soundtrack To The COVID-19 Pandemic

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 30: Sheff G (L) and Sleepy Hallow attend Sleepy Hallow's "Don't Sleep" Album Listening Party on October 30, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage) Fans ...
Inverse

The British are coming! How U.K. drill music is taking over TikTok.

He’s only been making music for seven months, but SK-47 is on the cusp of something big. The masked musician keeps his identity anonymous, like many artists in the U.K. drill world, to protect his ...
xxlmag

There’s a New Hip-Hop Movement Brewing in New York, and Everybody Knows It

Propelled by Brooklyn’s drill movement and wave-making upstarts, both the energy and the spotlight are coming back to New York. Over in Brooklyn, the new New York wave was imminent last year, ...
The New York Times

Fivio Foreign Had an Epiphany. Can He Change Drill Rap?

On his debut album, the Brooklyn rapper hopes to smooth a path forward for the city’s ascendant hip-hop scene, even as it draws criticism amid a rise in gun violence. Fivio Foreign hopes to become ...
cjr.org

‘Ghetto Reporter’: Why Drill Rap Is a Form of Journalism

Sign up for the daily CJR newsletter. Drill rap is a form of hip-hop that started in Chicago in the 2000s before hitting the scene in New York. The music’s subject ...
Rolling Stone

How Ice Spice Added a Touch of Zest to New York’s Drill Scene

Ice Spice hasn’t seen much of Atlanta yet when we speak on the phone in September, but she’s already formed the kind of assessment you’d expect from a tried-and-true New Yorker. “It kind of looks like ...
xxlmag

Pop Smoke on Brooklyn Drill, New York Hip-Hop in Final Interview

Celebrating the career of the late Pop Smoke. Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in the Fall 2020 issue of XXL Magazine, on stands soon. Just four Wednesdays later, on Feb. 19, Pop was ...
The Gazette

Former Army drill sergeant shares hip-hop fitness movement with Colorado Springs

Jasmine Flowers isn’t the kind of the person who needs motivation to get out of bed. She had been pushing herself for 12 years in the Army. She pushed through three deployments, most recently in ...