NYC NOW - April 13, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: April 13, 2023

It’s a hot one today, nearing 90 degrees! New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy says all options are on the table to protect access to abortion which includes stockpiling abortion medications, mayor Eric Adams is turning to the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma to help manage a homeless shelter for asylum seekers, and the Rutgers strike is still nowhere near to reaching a deal. And finally, New York City marks the 50th anniversary of hip hop this year but some current rap artists say the city is failing to support new music. Brooklyn drill rap artists say even the most popular performers in the scene are having trouble finding opportunities to play live. Reporter Andre Gee recently wrote about it for Rolling Stone and he spoke with WNYC’s Michael Hill.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Thursday, April 13th. Here's your midday news from Michael Hill. In New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy says all options are on the table to protect access to abortion. That includes aggressively stockpiling pills that have been used for abortions for decades, but are now in legal limbo. Murphy made the comments on this week's Ask Governor Murphy Call-in Show.

This is, again, an assault on women. It's a full-frontal assault on their rights, on their freedoms. A federal judge in Texas had suspended the FDA's approval of abortion drug mythopristone that dates back to the year 2000. An appeals court, as you heard, in Louisiana, yesterday restored partial access with limitations while the case moves through the courts. Mayor Eric Adams' office is turning to the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma to help manage a homeless shelter for asylum seekers, The shelter sits in council member Gail Brewers' Upper West Side District. Brewer says a decision to bring in an out-of-state provider that's never worked in the five barrels to run the shelter makes no sense

and that newcomers rely on shelter staff for all kinds of help. Where can I get English as a second language? Where's the library? And local people know what to do. The 125-room shelter is one of 100 emergency shelters. The city has opened since last April. house migrants. A spokesperson for the city's social services department says when it comes to finding a group to operated shelters, they are leaving no stone unturned. Our Karen Ye reports, the

record strike is still underway. No deal has been announced. 83 and sunny right now, sunny and near 90 today. Tomorrow's still hot, mostly sunny and 85 and we cool off this weekend into the 60s. Again, 83 and sunny. As New York City marks the 50th anniversary of hip-hop this year, some current rap artists say the city is failing to support newer music. Artists involved with a style known as Brooklyn Drill, say even the most popular performers in the scene are having trouble finding opportunities to play live. Reporter Andre G. recently wrote about it before Rolling Stone.

He joins us now. Andre, welcome to Morning Edition. Hey, thanks for having me. You're welcome. To start with, would you just talk for a moment about what distinguishes drill rap? Where did it come from and what sets it apart? So drill rap initially is a scene that derived from Chicago. You have artists like King Louis, Pac-Man, Chief Keefe, where it was initially the term drill was like a catch-all term.

And the song, like, that's cool or that's what's up. But over time, the term drill became more closely identified with, like, the violent depictions in the lyrics that reflected some of the gun violence occurring in Chicago. So the defining characteristics of drill music are the percussion, the drum programming. And then as it spread across the world and got more popular, then you have producers in the UK, like Axel Beats, Ato-Eat Mello, they imbued the sound with elements of dubstep and other, like, grime aesthetics that shifted a little bit from what Chicago was doing.

and I feel like that's what a lot of artists in New York, when they first began exploring drill, they were actually getting beats from those UK producers. So it became known as like Brooklyn drill, but it was actually kind of derived from UK drill. Yeah, now even as drill rappers like Favio and Foreign, Ice Spice, Lola Brook, and Little T.J. have become breakout stars.

Drill has also been attracting the attention of Mayor Eric Adams and the NYPD. How did it become such a target for scrutiny like that? Yeah, I think when it comes to the NYPD in the mayor's office, you have to view it in terms of opportunity. Like, you have several scenes kind of dueling for opportunity from the same art form. Like, obviously, hip-hop stardom is an opportunity for young rappers to, you know, get out of their neighborhoods, provide for their family, remove themselves from the proximity for violence. But at the same time, it becomes an opportunity for city brass to, you know, have a scapego to justify some. of their more draconian policies and their overall presence.

Like, you have Mayor Adams in particular, he's been, quote unquote, tougher on crime throughout his administration, and he recently opted to raise funding for the police at expense of funding for other public programming. His excuse for strengthening the police budget is that finally crime is rising and inside of hand. And so it then becomes advantageous for him to point to the drill scene and say, hey, these are the artists that are depicting the gun violence that's, quote, unquote, plaguing the city, if you stop the music, then maybe you'll have a hand and stop in the violence,

which we all know, or which a lot of us should know, it's like an erroneous assumption. But, yeah, when you vilify the artists and strip them of their artistic license and say, they're the cause of the violence and say, yeah, their shows will be catalyst for violence. It becomes easy for him to have a scapegoat for his tough on crime policies. So is the conversation around Drill that different than past concerns about gangster rap, Or are art forms that emerge from black communities just subject to a different level of scrutiny? Oh, well, I mean, I feel like, yeah, generally hip hop across the country, probably across the world as, like you said, is subject to a different level of scrutiny. I remember I was doing a report about Chicago drill, and one of the people I talked to, they were talking about all the concessions that the drill artists and their team were trying to do to acquiesce the city and their demands, you know,

doing shows earlier, doing shows in public in the park, just all kinds of things that attempt to ingratiate themselves to the police and not be targeted. But the person I was speaking with eventually said, it doesn't matter what kind of concessions you make when the people doing them are deemed illegal in the first place. And March organizers of the major touring hip-hop festival Rolling Loud Announce, they'd skip New York City in 2023.

What happened? Well, they said that they were logistical reasons beyond their control, they haven't really specified what those logistical reasons were. I reached out to them. But the first year of Rolling Loud, New York, the NYPD removed five artists from the bill I believe the day before the festival was supposed to start

because of quote-unquote safety concerns. Do you think in this case, Andre, the NYPD put pressure on rolling loud again? It's definitely possible because, I mean, in 2022, three artists were, removed from the bill. And, you know, the rolling out organizer said that the NYPD told us, if you don't, you know, follow our orders, then you can't have the show. So that's very possible. What do you think of that? What do I think of it? I think that's awful. I think that's just a reflection of,

you know, the criminalization of a black art scene of hip hop. And it's like, it's happening at the same time there. Ed Adams is calling himself celebrating the legacy of hip hop, but how celebratory can you be if you're cutting down the future of hip hop by depriving young artists the opportunity to do shows and apply their trade and go to festivals and make new fans. I think it's awful. Andre, where do you see things going from here for drill rep? Unfortunately, you know, just for various reasons, drill rep has had problems with artists transcending from the insular, like, local internet scene into, like, actual fame and getting signed and become an established artist.

I feel like the few that have done so are the artists who have maybe shifted their sound, expanded their sound, like you have a little TJ, even maybe a Favio 4, and obviously Pop Smoke, who was just like so talented and was exploring all kinds of subgenres. I think, and even when I listen to like younger drill artists talk about, you know, their career trajectory, they talk about we do drill to get a sort of. a certain level of notoriety. And then once we're established on a certain level, then we want to expand and show that we're more so we can get the radio play so we can be seen as less of a potential threat. So I feel like unfortunately, the drill scene will probably stay a local,

vilified, Uber targeted scene. And you'll have occasional artists who are able to transcend and expand and explore other sounds other than drill and maybe achieve starting that way. but it's looking like it's going to be difficult for artists to actually have sustainable careers doing just drill in light of the way that the city brass targets the scene. We've been speaking with Andre G., staff writer for a Rolling Stone, about issues facing the local drill-rab scene. Andre, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you for having me.

Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.