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The sound of drill is the brazenbrrrrrapof street-level rap over the past decade.
POW!Hyperlocal yet deeply translocal, its the sound of New York via Chicago and London.
New York drill, as told by …
19 artists who define the scene.
The tragedy of Jayquan McKenley.
.The sound itself.
The essential tracks.
Lawyers and lawmakers.
Influential Chicago producers like Young Chop took strong sonic cues from Luger and other trap beat-makers.
But while its sound offered an alluring template, Chicagos unhurried approach could feel plodding, airless.
Yet in just a couple of years, the beat shifted, inflected by the U.K.s distinctive Afro-diasporic heritage.
London producers sutured early drills half-step stomp to grime musics angular, up-tempo grooves and timeless Afro-Caribbean polyrhythms.
These beats propelled NYC drills big hits and helped it come into its own.
