London machete gang who rapped about shooting rivals to be jailed and face ban from making violent drill videos after being caught with weapons they claimed were props
Five members of a Notting Hill gang were caught on their way to ambush a rival mob armed with four machetes and two baseball bats
A LONDON gang who rapped about stabbing rivals face being jailed and BANNED from making confrontational "drill" music — after they were caught heading into battle armed with four machetes and two baseball bats.
The masked thugs sang in online videos about using mopeds to ambush other gangs with blades and guns, leaving them "splattered" in blood.
Five young men aged 17 to 21 are due to be sentenced today after they were stopped by police on their way to carry out a revenge attack on another mob with a terrifying array of weapons.
Officers who had monitored the Notting Hill gang's social media for two years complied a huge dossier of evidence of them promoting and glorifying violence with lyrics intended to taunt rivals.
One song called No Hook includes sounds of gunshots and boasts of spraying "opps" with bullets.
Lyrics include: "Clock me an opp (rival gang member), wind down the window, back out the spinner (revolver) and burst him.
"I put bullets in numerous guys like how come the opps ain't learning?
"OT trip (out of town or county line) trying to get some funds. We get bread and invest in guns. Dem boy run when we tapped **** Ching (stab) Splash (stab) aim for his lungs."
It goes on: "Four men on two peds (mopeds) jump off with my shank (knife) leave an opp boy splattered."
Last November cops stopped five of the gang in Colville Square, close to Portobello Road market.
One teenager leapt out of a black Nissan Juke with his face covered. Officers chased him and found a large machete down his trouser leg.
Yonas Girma, 21, Isaac Marshall, 18, and another teen were still in the car.
A large machete-style knife was found on Marshall and another on the back seat, and there were baseball bats in the front footwell and the boot.
A fifth thug, Micah Bedeau, 19, was nabbed in the hallway of nearby flats. Another large machete, a smaller knife and a balaclava were in his home.
The gang claimed the weapons were props for their music videos, but in fact they were on their way to attack rivals based in nearby Shepherd's Bush.
It was in revenge for a Snapchat video - later posted on YouTube - in which two of the other gang harassed Bedeau's grandmother because she was in their postcode area.
The words "Lucky I don't rock her face" were written across the screen, referencing Bedeau's street name Horrid1.
The video was captioned "Horrid1ComeGetYourNan" to goad his gang into action, Kingston crown court heard.
Last month Bedeau, Girma, Marshall and two 17-year-olds who cannot be named each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit violent disorder.
Today prosecutors will apply for court orders that would ban them from making drill rap music — which has been blamed for a rise in gang murders — for up to five years.
The Criminal Behaviour Order would also ban them from displaying gang-related hand gestures, having face coverings such as bandanas in a public place, and entering certain districts.
The Sound Of Violence: how drill music fuels London's murder epidemic
Gang wars in the capital have claimed dozens of lives this year - stoked by a confrontational style of rap music.
Drill originated in Chicago earlier this decade, helping to make the city one of America’s most violent with 650 murders last year.
More recently a grittier style emerged in South London drawing on grime and other genres.
It has swept the UK aided by former Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood who hosts drill videos on his YouTube channel.
Lyrics are usually extremely graphic, glorifying violence and gang culture.
Some feuding gangs have recorded "diss tracks", insulting each other online as an incitement to tit-for-tat violence.
The music has been blamed in part for the surge in murders and maimings in London which has claimed at least 62 lives so far in 2018.
Rhyiem Barton, 17, who was gunned down in South London in May, was a member of the Moscow17 drill crew and once appeared in a YouTube video alongside Westwood.
Last month one grieving father branded drill "demonic" and said videos were a "rehearsal" for the murder of his son Jermaine Goupall, 15, last August in Thornton Heath, West London.
The killer was drill artist M-Trap 0, real name Junior Simpson, 17. A judge told him: "You wrote lyrics in your phone that predicted the exact type of crime that took place."
In April another judge cited drill's "malign influence" as he jailed four thugs for the murder of Mahamed Hassan, 17, in Battersea, South West London.
Drill videos were used as evidence against Reial Phillips, known as Lynch, who was jailed for 27 years in 2016 for a series of non-fatal shootings in Birmingam.
And diss tracks posted by two rival East London gangs were at the heart of another murder trial after Rikell Rogers, known as Dubsy, murdered Marcel Addai, 17, in Hackney in 2015.
Scotland Yard has tried to prevent drill gigs and asked YouTube to take down more than 50 videos it says promote gang violence.
Ahead of today's sentencing, Detective Superintendent Adam Lowe said: "Seven music videos were shown in court as evidence of the aggressive and violent nature of the suspects.
"The lyrics referenced several real and often violent events. Their aim was purely to glorify gangs and violence.
"We are very clear we will take decisive action to get videos of this nature removed from the internet.
"Despite what the gangs may claim, there is a clear link, as in this case, to violence.
"And we will bring those videos before the courts to demonstrate the intention of those who make and take part in them to cause violence and disorder.
"There is no doubt the five defendants that day were in the process of setting out to cause some very serious harm to their rivals.
"They equipped themselves with huge knives and I am sure there would have been some life-changing injuries inflicted or worse had the police not intervened."
Senior Crown Prosecutor Paul Vickers said: "These defendants claimed they were on their way to make a drill music video and that the weapons in their possession were simply to be used as props - but the prosecution proved otherwise.
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"These criminals were embroiled in bitter gang violence.
"The sheer array of weapons - including machetes and baseball bats — with which these young people armed themselves, showed that they were out to commit violence.
"They will now spend a significant amount of time behind bars."
Last month YouTube said it had removed more than 30 violent music videos after Met chief Cressida Dick linked drill rap lyrics with a surge in stabbings in London.
Earlier this week it was revealed ex Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood's was hosting drill music on his YouTube channel, which raked in up to £1.9million.
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