The UK Drill Project, at The Pit, reviewed

The UK Drill Project is a cabaret show that celebrates greed, criminality and drug-taking among black males in London. It opens with a septet of masked performers, sheathed in dark Lycra, singing a rhythmic poem while pretending to fire guns and stab people with knives. These sad young rappers are desperate to look scary because they’re scared themselves. And though they claim to be artists, their purpose in writing ‘drill’ songs and posting videos online is to protect their drug profits and to intimidate rival gangs.

Musically, they lack accomplishment. They can’t play instruments and appear to own none. Harmony and melody are alien to them. One of the rappers successfully coaxes a beat from an orange drum that looks like an oversize basketball but this is a rather modest achievement. A small child can tap out a rhythm. As can a woodpecker. Creatively they focus on writing lyrics about their feuds with other gangs, and their impenetrable street jargon needs to be translated. This lands them in trouble. A character called TJ is arrested on suspicion of murder, and a Scotland Yard etymologist interprets his lyrics in a prejudicial manner. TJ raps about attacking an ‘opps’ (opponent) with a ‘wap’  (weapon), which he uses to stab his victim in the ‘dome’ (head). What do these words prove? Only that TJ has pugilistic ambitions. The lyrics don’t connect him to a specific offence, and yet TJ is found guilty in court with no supporting forensic evidence whatsoever.

According to the script, several convictions have been secured on this questionable basis. Which is alarming. Such a flimsy verdict should be overturned on appeal. Other aspects of his case ring false. He doesn’t have a solicitor. And he’s visited alone in his prison cell by two bullying detectives who make no record of the interrogation.