HighRise Entertainment / The Uk Drill Project
THE SHOW - ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMME - IMMERSIVE RAVE EXHIBITION
The UK Drill Project was seed commissioned as part of STAF’s The Sick of the Fringe, Care and Destruction Festival 2019.
Following its premiere and sold out run at Barbican Centre in November 2022, as Winners of The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award 2022, HighRise are seeking partners for a Nationwide tour of The UK Drill Project 2023 - .
The UK Drill Project features a multimedia live show, an immersive rave exhibition and industry leading wrap around engagement activity for young people.
Read about the show and its themes in this article by Will Pritchard for The Guardian.
To find out more about The UK Drill Project and HighRise Theatre see below, or contact Executive Producer Libby Liburd.
THE SHOW
Challenging myths about UK Drill music and its links to youth violence, this radically honest and direct show takes real-life experiences to explore the truths behind the headlines.
Developed through conversations with artists on the scene, victims of violent youth crime, police, youth workers, government officials and defence lawyers; this new show uses original live music, unfiltered testimony and world building multimedia to explore the perceived relationship between musicality and criminality.
With the justice system putting this music and its people on trial and the ensuing moral panic in the media, can we as a society really blame an art form for a spike in violence, or is this another example of the UK’s racist policy making and censorship of black and brown led music and culture?
ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMME
To accompany the show, HighRise have created a dynamic and deep reaching engagement programme for young people using Drill and popular local music, culture and politics as a tool to engage, create, uplift and inspire.
This programme is bespoke to the locations, areas and young people we work with, following on from a recent pilot in partnership with Cambridge Junction. This tried and tested model supports young people (14-21) to produce their own artistic work, create local collaborations and receive career development and mentoring in music and filmmaking.
IMMERSIVE RAVE EXHIBITION
Acting as a curtain raiser, HighRise also present an immersive rave exhibition which invites audiences to explore the relationship, both real and perceived, between UK Drill music and criminality.
Does Drill music simply provoke violence amongst young people? Or does the music reflect the political and social environment that young people are growing up in Inner-City Britain?
HighRise’s immersive event will showcase this debate and reveal the humanity behind one of the most controversial genres of music ever. With a live DJ set, playful instillations and immersive performers guiding the audiences every step, the exhibition offers true representation to young people and insight to a new world for curious minds.
What is Drill?
Born in the streets of Southside Chicago in the early 2010’s Drill music became infamous as a vehicle to speak about the dark lives and criminal activity of its city’s inhabitants. With references to their city, the oppression they face from police, poverty, drug dealing, murder and other acts of violence; the genre became a hit on the radio and artists like Chief Keef transcended the music beyond Chicago.
Absorbed, chewed and sped up to the UK’s heartbeat of 140 beats per minute, the influence of Grime music combined with the ever challenging life of living among London’s poorest blocks gave UK Drill artists a lane of their own. Their lyrics now taking on an even darker undertone, with explicit depictions of murder explicitly named and explained with coded slang throughout offering clues towards their involvement in certain crime. Or is it? These are rappers, everything has to be taken with a pinch of salt. This however pricked up the ears of The Metropolitan Police and in 2019, Criminal Behavioural Orders (Previously ASBOs) began being handed to artists, despite a previous or known involvement in crime. These CBOs blocked artists from travelling and performing, censored their music before release and banned their music from being uploaded to YouTube or radio. Huge routes of making money for these young artists.
Despite excessive police interference, injunctions/music bans offered to artists and a circus of press attention, UK Drill is now recognised as an official genre on all major music platforms worldwide. Its popularity has seen it spread from the streets, to YouTube, to top of the official UK charts via social media, adverts and radio.
Click to see more resources:
What is UK Drill? A primer on the rising British rap sound - Red Bull Music
Who are HighRise?
HighRise is an award winning Global Majority led multi-arts collective that represents unheard communities and stories of contemporary Inner-City Britain.
Champions of using rap music, theatre, subcultures, politics and heritage at the heartbeat of their work; HighRise is at the frontline of youth arts engagement across the UK where their productions, programmes, consultancy and mentoring schemes offer deep engagement in forgotten areas in Britain. Partners have included Nike, The National Theatre, The Barbican, Centrepoint and The Metropolitan Police.
NewGens is a brand new youth associate company of HighRise; A creative space for young multidisciplinary artists 16-27 to create, perform & get pathways into jobs and further education in the arts with multiple work placements, apprentice opportunities and support with audition technique.
NewGens music and theatre alumni can be seen working and studying at BBC, New Diorama Theatre, RADA, Guildhall, Royal Welsh & on Radio, TV & Film.
In 2023, for the first time, HighRise will join Arts Council England’s 2023-26 National Portfolio.
“An articulate, amusing and angry political rant through the medium of grime” The Stage on MerryVille
Click to see press on HighRise:
Can an inner city theatre collective save drill music's image? - GQ Magazine
The Wee Review - The Concrete Jungle Book
CONTACT
To find out more about The UK Drill Project and HighRise Theatre contact Executive Producer Libby Liburd.
The UK Drill Porject is supported by Arts Council England, with seed commissioning by The Sick of the Fringe as part of Care and Destrcution 2019, supported by Camden People’s Theatre and a Barbican Lab.
