BLOOD MONEY
DJ Tim Westwood and YouTube accused of ‘having blood on their hands’ after the deaths of drill rappers who are fighting bloody gang wars
FORMER Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood and YouTube were accused of making blood money from the deaths of drill rappers fighting bloody gang wars.
Anti-knife campaigners said Westwood, 60, was profiting from evil as cops began probing the killing of young dad Siddique Kamara — knifed to death by a rival drill gang in Camberwell, South London.
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The 23-year-old was part of the Moscow 17 drill crew who have been championed by Westwood on his YouTube channel.
It is feared the rapper — known as Incognito — was targeted on Wednesday night by the Peckham-based Zone 2 gang.
He had been cleared of murdering one of their associates after an Old Bailey trial in January.
Kamara appeared with Westwood in a video on his YouTube channel TimWestwoodTV last year.
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Teen Rhyhiem Barton shot dead in Bank Holiday bloodshed featured in Tim Westwood video
It also featured fellow drill crew member Rhyhiem Ainsworth Barton, 17 — shot dead in May.
The gang wars are fuelled by drill videos featuring images of violence.
Spotify and Apple Music have also been accused of raking in money from selling the violent music.
Jen Lock from the Lives Not Knives Ealing group complained to Westwood in January about his influence on youngsters.
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She said: “He knows exactly what effect it’s having.
“I asked his team how he can justify getting gangs on to promote, glorify and encourage them.
“They said it’s an expression of art. It makes my blood boil that he tries to play innocent.
“He’s making blood money off the hits it’s generating on YouTube. He has blood on his hands.”
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Jen, 41, added: “YouTube is a corrupt system which is making money from this violent content.
“They’ve a duty to act quickly when it’s reported and clamp down on it.”
After Rhyhiem’s death, ex-public schoolboy Westwood said he did not know Moscow 17 were involved in violence and denied profiting from hosting the videos — or paying groups to appear.
Yvette Cooper, Labour MP and Home Affairs Committee chair, this year urged Apple and Spotify to stop selling drill rap.
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Spotify said they are “looking into it”.
A YouTube spokesman said: “We are working with police to review videos that may be connected with the death of Siddique.
"We don’t want our platform used to incite violence.”
Tim Westwood’s YouTube channel slammed for promoting violent drill videos ‘coined in up to £1.9m’
Terrifying lyrics
By Ben Leo
DISTURBING Moscow17 lyrics boast about how they want to attack their rivals with knives.
In their track, Moscow March, watched more than 100,000 times on YouTube, the group rap about splashing — or stabbing — their “opps”.
It goes: “Man’ll splash him with a passion/Ding dong whip [use a car] or the ding dong ped [use a moped]/Pull out, hop out, bang it [stab him].”
The track continues: “The other side known for the dashing [running away]/Moscow’s we’re known for the stabbings.”
Earlier this year, Rhyheim Ainsworth Barton, known as GB, challenged rivals from Peckham’s Zone 2 gang in another track City of God.
Zone 2 responded with a video saying how they were “going to burst” their rivals.
In May, Rhyheim was shot dead in the same street where Incognito was killed on Wednesday
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