Hot 97’s DJ Drewski announced recently that he would no longer play gang, or diss, music during his sets.
DJ Drewski made the announcement on his Instagram stories. “I’m not supporting no more diss/gang music!” he wrote. “If ya dissing each other in the songs, don’t even send it to me! I don’t care if the artist sends it, the label sends it, your big Homie sends it! I will not support or play anymore Diss/Gang records on the radio! We r losing too many young men and women to the streets!”
In another post, he addressed drill rappers, saying that there are a lot of drill songs that arent about dissing other rappers. He also urged drill artists to use their creativity and “pen game.”
“If you make drill music, there are a lot of drill songs without dissing your opps or smoking your opps! Step up your pen game and creativity. No reason why every week someone is getting locked up or killed. I can’t change the world, but I can stop supporting the nonsense. I admit I’m a fan of the drill records and supported from the beginning. But it’s only getting worse. SMH.”
Following the statement, Drewski spoke to Complex about his decision.
“I feel music has a super-strong influence on our culture and streets,” Drewski said. “So when we keep showcasing and promoting these records that are inciting violence it just adds fuel to the fire. When we make it cool on major platforms to go ‘shoot up the opps’ we are sending the wrong message.”
Drewski added that “Radio DJs like myself are supporting it and record labels are putting money behind it and it’s just getting out of control. Every week another young man or woman is getting killed or going to jail. There will always be violence in the hood because of the way it’s structured but I won’t be the one to add to this broken system.”
Drewski’s announcement comes after Brooklyn artist and Fivio Foreign affiliate TDott Woo was killed in Canarsie on Tuesday. On Monday, fellow rapper Nas Blixy was also fatally shot as well..
