Drill Rap Literacy: Reading Complexity, Counterstories and Critical Pedagogy in the Dutch Drill Scene

As the latest and rawest branch of the hip-hop family tree, drill rap has been fraught with tension due to its violent content and ‘fact-fiction hybridity’. As digital dragnets close in on young drillers and drill-related court cases pile up, we seek to decriminalise this subgenre. We do so through the first-ever sociolinguistic analysis of the Dutch drill scene, which stimulates (digital) street literacy and more complex readings of drill as a counterweight to the default response of policing and prosecuting. Inspired by Children First, Offenders Nowhere principles, we seek to open pedagogical gateways to empower young drillers in need.