Sunday 20 June 2010

Rap music feud behind gun violence in Birmingham - NEWS

FROM THE BIRMINGHAM MERCURY

Jun 20 2010 by Steve Jones


THEIR faces contorted with hate, young gang members spit bile about their rivals into microphones.

Violent rap music has been blamed for sparking bloodshed in the US, including the murders of superstars Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G.
Now Birmingham could face a similar threat as the Sunday Mercury has learned a bitter hip-hop feud may be behind a multiple shooting in a Digbeth club last weekend.

Four young music fans were gunned down outside the Custard Factory following an “urban music” event early on Sunday morning.

As detectives continue to hunt for the gunman, gangland sources have claimed the shooting is part of a feud between junior elements of the notorious Burger Bar Boys and Johnson Crew.

The gunman, they claim, was looking to target members of the Aston-based B6 Slash gang which is linked to the Johnsons.

He is alleged to be part of the B21 Bang Bang gang, an offshoot of the Burgers, and is understood to have been the victim of a stabbing by B6 Slash rivals weeks ago.

Both young groups are trying to make a name for themselves by breaking into the lucrative UK urban music scene – posting videos of rap songs containing graphic gun images and lyrics about shootings and murder.

There are now fears of a summer of retribution between the two gangs, who take their names from Birmingham postcodes.

“Rivalry between gangs used to be all about drugs, turf, dealing, etc, but this is a whole new thing,” a gangland source told the Sunday Mercury.

‘‘Both B6 and B21 are trying to make it in the music industry and that’s what all this is stemming from.

‘‘These are young guys and they don’t want territory, what they want is respect.

“The whole music scene is spilling over onto the streets.

‘‘These guys aren’t just rapping about killing each other, they are taking it up on the streets.

“There is definitely going to be more of this to come.

‘‘What the cops are worried about is a summer of violence and retribution and nobody wants that. Police and mediators are trying to defuse things at the moment, but tensions out there on the street are very high.”

One gang insider who asked not to be named, said: “People are preparing hitlists on the street, and we just don’t know if we can contain it.

“This shooting has set us back five years. There is going to be retribution.”

B6 Slash members were linked to the 2008 murder of Matthew Sutherland, 29, who was killed after a drum and bass night at a Birmingham club.

Last Sunday’s shooting took place at the Space 2 venue, part of the Custard Factory site.

Three young men, aged 19, 23 and 25, are recovering after suffering gunshot wounds to their legs, while a 25 year-old woman was shot in the foot.

No other details about the injured have been released by West Midlands Police.

Sources claim B6 Slash gangsters were recently involved in an incident with a northern gang affiliated with the Burgers, the Handsworth-based group behind the 2003 New Year’s murders of innocent teenagers Letisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis.

Factory Events, which promoted last Sunday’s urban music event, has said they will not hold similar nights in the city again following the latest violence, which made national headlines.
Meanwhile, Birmingham City Council plans a full review of the licence granted to the Space 2 venue, which has been asked to provide proof that its CCTV cameras were operating properly before the shooting.

Both B6 Slash and B21 Bang Bang gangs have posted chilling videos online in which they rap about carrying guns, murdering rivals and dealing drugs.

The B6 crew are said to be having more success than their rivals in their fledgling careers as part of the growing UK “Grime” music scene.

Bullet holes appear on the screen on one of the gang videos, while crew members mimic shooting at people with pistols.

Lyrics are also heavily laced with threats and deadly boasts.

“Gunshots, gunshots, open up the safe.

‘‘If he tries a fast one and tries to run away, gunshots, gunshots I’ll open up his face, everybody covered in blood,” shouts one rapper.

“N*****s want beef they get left all slumped, body builder style I walk with a pump (shotgun).

“Think I give a s*** if my music sells, in the street my name rings like church bells, but n*****s still envy me, ‘cos I make sales like HMV.”

Another young Birmingham rapper, appearing in a hood in a city graveyard, compares his feud with another MC to the bitter East Coast vs West Coast feud in the US which led to the murders of rappers Tupac and Notorious B.I.G.

He warns his rival that he will bury him in the graveyard and that as soon as he gets a shotgun he will hunt him down.

“I’ll stick a shank in your chest, you’ll be like ‘I’m sorry’,” he raps.

In other YouTube clips of the B21 Bang Bang crew, gangsters can be seen posing with a shotgun and rapping about murder, while another masked man clutches what looks like a pistol.

The gun-wielding rapper tells viewers: “Welcome to Handsworth, you’re in the slum, you’re in the f****** hood,” before telling gang members to put a “bullet in the head” of their rivals.

Last night, a spokesman for West Midlands Police said: “Any information that we receive will be looked at to see whether it is connected to the incident.

“This is a complex inquiry and we are still gathering evidence. Police, in conjunction with Birmingham Reducing Gang Violence, will look at all elements of how gang members pass information to each other, including websites.”

Detectives investigating the shooting have also turned to social networking site Facebook in a desperate appeal for witnesses to come forward.

Last year, we revealed how West Midlands Police were using YouTube to politely ask gunmen to put down their weapons, posting comments on rap videos where gangsters had threatened to “blow the face off” their rivals.

10 comments:

  1. B6 SLASH for life real road gangsters!!

    Fuck B21 Bang Bang Handsworth they're pussies they would get bodied in Aston, Lozells, Nechells, Newtown and Erdington, no joke ting either, and fuck Whipitup aka Dunknowmfa91 for saying peak, fucking white pussyhole.

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  2. Loooooooooool. haha get the fuck outta here whipitup u cunt before i get a slash gangster to shower shoot u prik.

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  3. Haahahaha rillaz lyrics.....more tym dump off at boi dem

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  4. Brav u dumb fham its all bout b6, burgers nd the paki drug Gangs ygm!

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  5. What a load of bollox, none of it is real, just americanised gangsta wannabes turning everything into shit because they want to because they think it's cool. It's pathetic, they suffer from an illness brought here with the yardies. Chip on shoulder syndrome which means they can't take responsibility for there own actions claiming its because we live in the ghetto. Sorry but that's a cop out, I'm from the same place and it's really not that bad. Just a bunch of youts that have watched to many rap videos that need to grow up managed to get there hands on guns and think its big. On a real lads, grow up an stop blaming everything on society or the police or the government. Iv got an idea...GET A FUCKIN JOB. We live in the uk. A place were everything is free, speech is free, healthcare is free, education is free. News flash, there are no ghettos here, a bunch of yardies came over n thought, hmm I know, I'll do exactly what I was doing in Jamaica here, that's a good plan...what could possibly go wrong... Take a look around the world before you claim you live in a ghetto. If you're that poor how have you got a comp an the Internet to upload your shit when apparently you don't even have food...it's a load of bullshit. Americanised yardie bullshit..grow up

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  6. 21 ALL DAY ,BANGAZ MOVEMENTS FUCK SLASH ,O.N.G,MOB ,ITS 21 RUNNING THIS SHIT BITCHEZ

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  7. fuck bang bang your music your weed shit and your area lol oover multiculture rundown swamp i wouldnt rep 21 even if i was a postman that lived there f.u.k.a.s 6 made neva bitch made stay loyal stay humble SLASH ARE DOIN THE DAMN TING !!!

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  8. Fuck slash little pussyhole bwoy dem RMD allday u little fukkin snakes settin up ur own fam n bruvas yall r serious h8az bitches

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  9. I been there seen it and worn the t shirt but we get older and our time passed so to all you dickheads out there remember this there's two ways outta this life jail or deaded or for man like me power fam smashin not jus one postcode but all handsworth taught me to be raw birmz taught me how to make money and b6 taught me how to kill with no remorse ya hear dat cah I'll kill a cunt for there wet talk g 21 to 66 cornering the market jheeeezzzzeee

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