YouTube’s knife crime rake- off
This rapper is in prison for stabbing a man 13 times in an unprovoked attack. His video lionising deadly ‘Rambo’ knives is free to view on YouTube. And what’s even worse . . .
YOUTUBE i s profi t i ng from horrific gangster music videos that glamorise knife and gun attacks and are made by convicted criminals, a Mail on Sunday investigation reveals today.
Shockingly, the internet giant and the film-makers make money from toy, game and film adverts aimed at children that appear when the videos are viewed.
The rap songs are in the notorious ‘drill’ style, which has been blamed for fuelling the recent surge in gang violence.
The videos have been viewed millions of times and YouTube – owned by tech giant Google – may have made more than £1 million from just four videos alone.
Writing on these pages today, Scotland Yard chief Cressida Dick urges social media companies to do more to combat the glamorisation of knife crime by stopping its ‘dissemination’.
One song was made by a criminal known as A6 – he was jailed for stabbing a man 13 times in an unprovoked attack.
It features hooded gang members bragging about knifing their rivals on a council estate.
In the past two years, police have asked YouTube to take down up to 60 videos but officers are forced to prove the clips are ‘harmful’ first.
The site has removed just over 30 where they were found to be in violation of its policies.
Reporters from this newspaper were still able to watch several drill videos featuring knives and incorporating adverts targeted at youngsters , des pi t e YouTube claiming it does not allow videos with weapons.
One video by A6 – real-name Alexander Elliott-Joahill – has been on YouTube for a year and viewed 130,000 times. His song, called I Am God, features several members of his gang, Block 6 – named after a tower block in Catford, South-East London – brandishing large serrated blades and includes violent lyrics about stabbings.
YouTube viewers of the song see adverts for Marvel ‘ superhero’ Nerf toy guns and the hugely popular video game Minecraft.
Elliott-Joahill, 25, became notorious during the 2011 London riots when he was arrested with Laura Johnson, the daughter of a millionaire, who had been chauffeuring him around during a ten-hour ‘orgy’ of looting.
Elliott-Joahill was jailed for eight years for looting and described as the ‘ worst’ of the rioters after smashing a brick through the window of a police car driven by a female police officer. At the time of the riots he was spotted wearing a skull mask.
He was later released only to be jailed again last year for 15 years after stabbing a man with a ‘rambo’ knife similar to those in his YouTube video. The victim had to be rushed to hospital for abdominal surgery.
In the video, Elliott-Joahill wears a skull mask similar to the one seen in the riots and uses slang to describe stabbing his enemies.
The lyrics include: ‘I’ll chef [stab] man with t hat rambo [ knife]. I’ll chef man in the stomach, I’ll chef man for my queen and for
‘The firm may have made £1m from just four videos’ ‘Videos can be watched with no age restrictions’
my bruddas [brothers].’ The song continues: ‘What you know about block? Man come get shot. Got stabbed up in my leg in a fist fight. He got caught on the bus then he got stabbed in his windpipe. I remember the time when man got got at the shops, I shanked [stabbed] man then I bopped [walked off].’
The video is available to watch without any age restrictions.
A6 has another song on YouTube, called Bl@ckbox, in which he raps about pouring bleach into the eyes of a kidnap victim.
Viewers of the video see an advert