New York City Mayor Eric Adams has announced he will be meeting with rappers and musical artists in the city to try and convince them not to glorify gun violence.
Adams, elected last year to replace former Mayor Bill de Blasio, said he hopes to combat the rise of “drill rap,” a genre focused on feuds and threats of violence between artists. Adams wants to see the genre banned from social media platforms for the sake of young users.
“We pulled Trump off Twitter because of what he was spewing,” Adams said Friday. “Yet we’re allowing music, displaying of guns, violence. We’re allowing it to stay on these sites.”
Adams said he was made aware of the problem by his son, who works for seminal rapper Jay-Z.
“I had no idea what ‘drill rapping’ was, but I called my son, and he sent me some videos,” Adams said. “And it is alarming. And we are going to pull together the social media companies and sit down with them and say, ‘You have a civic and corporate responsibility.’”