22Gz releases 'Suburban' — Brooklyn drill begins
In 2016, 22Gz (Jeffrey Alexander) releases 'Suburban' on SoundCloud and his own digital channels from the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn. The track is produced over UK-drill-inspired beats (sliding 808 patterns, ride-cymbal-led hi-hats) imported by producers like 808Melo and AXL Beats. Sheff G's 'No Suburban' (2017) follows as a direct call-and-response, and the two tracks together define the Brooklyn drill sub-genre's specific cross-Atlantic dynamic — a UK-drill production template applied to Brooklyn street-narrative MCing. Pop Smoke would, three years later, propel the sub-genre into international commercial dominance.
Why it matters
Brooklyn drill is a hybrid. The production template is UK drill — specifically the producer 808Melo, who is from London and who built basically all of the Pop Smoke catalog later — and the lyrical-and-vocal register is Brooklyn street rap. The combination should not have worked. UK drill's sound (140-bpm, sliding-808, dark-and-quiet) is structurally different from prior Brooklyn rap (gritty-but-loud, JBs samples, boom-bap drums). 22Gz's "Suburban" is the song that proved the combination worked. Sheff G's response cemented it. Pop Smoke would, by 2019, make the form into one of the dominant commercial rap sub-genres in America. The cross-Atlantic loop (Chicago drill 2012 → London drill 2014 → Brooklyn drill 2016 → global drill 2020) is one of the more geographically remarkable arcs in modern rap. You can hear the whole chain starting on this one mixtape track. 22Gz set the table.
Branches
Sub-genre1
Citations 2
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Nearby in time
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- 201667 release 'Lets Lurk' feat. Giggs — UK drill enters the British mainstream conversation
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- 2016Skepta wins the Mercury Prize for 'Konnichiwa'